house sales

Limerick Township planners eye car-repair zoning change
LIMERICK — The recent conditional use hearing on East Coast Marine’s request to be allowed to sell and repair automobiles and motorcycles has led to a proposal to amend township zoning ordinance provisions concerning motor vehicle body repair and painting.

Read more on The Phoenix

GM India commisions its power train plant at Pune
General Motors (GM) India has started power train manufacturing facility at Talegaon plant near Pune The plant has a capacity of manufacturing 1.4 lakh engines per year and it will be increased further.GM has invested Rs250 crore for this facility. These engines are made for small cars like Chevrolet Beat and Chevrolet Spark for both petrol and diesel.

Read more on Business Standard India

Laura Bush to Jacksonville crowd: White House gave her ‘a much richer life’
Former first lady Laura Bush told about 400 people in Jacksonville Tuesday night that she found life in the White House fascinating and would do it again, though she’s enjoying retirement as a best-selling author. “It was just a huge honor for your husband to be elected president of the United States twice,” Bush said. “It gave me a chance to have a much richer life than I would have had …

Read more on The Florida Times-Union

Legals for week of 9-1
The Dallas County Soil and Water Conservation District will hold an election for one supervisor, each in Area II, which is land south of 64 Highway and north of 32 highway., and Area IV which is land East of Highway H and South of Highway 32 on November 8, 2010, from 12:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. at the USDA building located at 1225 South Ash Street in Buffalo.

Read more on Buffalo Reflex

Los Angeles home prices are bouncing back.  According to the Los Angeles MLS database (MRMLS), single family residence home data shows that median prices in December 2009 have risen past December 2008 by 3%. It appears the market is stirring to life again, with excitement in the air for 2010.

Data released for the month of December showed the Los Angeles County housing market gaining strength in this traditionally slow month. The median price paid for a Los Angeles home increased to $390,000 from $380,000 a year ago. This is not quite a booming real estate market yet, but this slow upturn in prices is encouraging news.

This recent improvement in home prices is driven by mainly first-time home buyers and investors purchasing deeply discounted foreclosed homes and other properties in distress. The number of foreclosure sales as a percentage of the entire resale market has continued to drop since the peak in February 2008. Foreclosures will continue for years, but not in as great of numbers as this last year. The year 2010 will still show strong foreclosure statistics though, as homeowners still continue to be upside down in their mortgages. Next years recovery could still be affected by so many cheap homes flooding the market.

A first time home-buyers should take advantage of the $8,000 Home-Buyer Tax Credit. This is a great time to buy a Los Angeles home with low prices and a strong tax credit to help out. Be ready to be involved in bidding wars for the next coming months as the tax credit will be coming to it’s end. There is also a lower inventory of homes on the market compared to last year, so be prepared to see many buyers out in droves buying. This makes for an interesting marketplace, desirable homes being snapped up from first-time home buyers attempting to cash in on such a fantastic tax credit.

Some great news for home sellers is that the Average Days on Market for December 2009 is at 52 days, in comparison to 82 days back in December 2008. That means that homes now listed take 30 days less to sell, 36% less time.

Homesellers who price right and are in a desirable area are being able to sell more rapidly, rather than having to have their home sit on the market for months at a time. Los Angeles county Monthly Supply of Inventory has steeply declined since last year. In December 2008, there was a 9.7 month supply of home versus in December 2009 only a 3.6 month supply of homes. That’s a steep decline of 6 months, or 62% down.

Los Angeles County Supply and Demand has had a sharp decline. The total number of homes for sale in December 2009 declined 51% from the same period last year. In December 2008, there were 12,879 homes for sale versus only 6312 homes for sale in December 2009.  Sold houses for the same period was 1283 for December 2008 versus 1080 for December 2009. These supply and demand figures represent buyers and sellers still not certain about listing their houses for sale or buying their first home in this economy.

In 2010, it appears to be a great time to buy real estate in Los Angeles county, indicated by investors still currently purchasing in large numbers. This along with so many low-priced foreclosure homes on the market and the continuation of the $8,000 Home-Buyer Tax Credit make 2010 look like another great year for first-time home buyers to enter the home market.

One of the most important aspects of the short sale business is determining the value of the property you have under contract. It’s impossible to formulate your offer to the short sale lender without knowing the home appraisal value of the property you are interested in. Likewise, knowing the appraisal value of the property is just as important to the loss mitigator at the bank. The loss mitigator must establish an appraised value for the short sale property so he has a baseline price for negotiation. The appraised value of the property establishes the playing field on which we negotiate the short sale price of the property.

Getting Property Comparisons

The best way to determine the home appraisal value of a property is by using property comparisons (comps). Look at the properties in the same area of the short sale property.

You can get these comps with a little effort. There are a few ways to find market value comparisons for your area:

• Subscription programs (one is Haines, a subscription service on disc)
• Multiple Listing Service (MLS) if you have access
• Network with a realtor who can pull comps for you
• Free comps services on the Internet

It’s not recommended that you use the free market comparison services found on the Internet. These free services are worth about as much as you pay for them. If you have to spend some money getting comps, that’s a good thing. It means that someone is actually doing research behind the website or program.

Finding Home Appraisal Value: An Example

A busy real estate investor may outsource their home appraisal needs to another company or a certified FHA appraiser.

When a deal comes in the real estate investor will email the FHA appraiser, the address and owner’s name. In about 24 to 48 hours the appraiser will send back a limited desktop appraisal with three comparison prices on other similar sold properties and the market value that the appraiser has determined for the property that the company is interested in. The appraisal may also include some additional information and a map.

This appraisal gives an idea of the market value of the property in comparison with other distressed properties in the area. When looking for comps, don’t look for sales of well maintained properties, instead look for comparisons of other properties in foreclosure, REO properties, or corporate-owned properties.

Be Prepared to Pay for it!

Companies spend money getting their comps because they want good, accurate market value comparisons. When you are figuring the budget for your short sale business, remember to allocate some funds to pay a company or a certified FHA appraiser for that home appraisal. It’s well worth it to pay for a home appraisal so that you have accurate comps from third person parties or neutral parties outside of your short sale deal. You present their appraisals as objective evidence to convince the bank to accept your short sale offer.

Factoring in Cost Estimates for Repairs

The physical condition of the property is just as important as comps in a home appraisal. See if there are any repairs to be made on the short sale property. Make notes of what’s wrong, take photos, and get construction estimates for the cost of repairs.

When you do your cost estimates remember that the bank will be making the repairs, not you. Get cost estimates from a general contractor the bank would typically hire.

The best way to get cost estimates for your home appraisal is to hire a certified home inspector. You can look one up in the yellow pages. There’s also an organization called the National Association of Home Inspectors (NAHI). NAHI has high standards and finding a home inspector affiliated with this organization is a good way of making sure you get a thorough inspection.

A typical home inspection can take two and a half to three hours. The inspector gets up on the roof, checks the crawlspace and goes over the home with a fine-toothed comb. On completion of the home inspection the inspector hands over a report that can be 20 pages with detailed information about the property defects. Home inspectors may also takes photos and provide detailed cost estimates.

Paying a home inspector to get cost estimates is a great way to calculate the home appraisal value for your property. You’ll know exactly what’s wrong with that house because you’ve gone to a neutral third party expert.

Getting the Cost Estimates: An Example

Dan Shields is a typical home inspector. He’s a member of NAHI and does all of the home appraisal evaluations and repair estimates for many investors.

Dan states that a home inspector will start an inspection from the outside of the property to get a look at the big picture. He’ll check the roofing, gutters, siding, and windows to make sure they’re properly installed and flashed. He will also check out porches, columns, etc.

From there the home inspector enters the home for the interior survey, to document built-in amenities, appliances, and flooring. He will next go to the mechanical room and check the heating/cooling package and plumbing. Finally, the home inspector will check the attic and find the insulation factor for the short sale property, literally working from the ground up on the home inspection.

A Broker’s Price Opinion Value

When you complete your home appraisal and submit the short sale package to the bank you will be assigned to a specific loss mitigator who will want to determine their own estimate of property value.

The loss mitigator orders the bank’s appraiser to go look at the property and get a broker’s price opinion (BPO) or market value. Sometimes it’s done by a realtor, sometimes an appraiser. It’s your job to be the contact person that the appraiser goes through to get into that property. It’s very important that you meet the appraiser at the property to convince him your home appraisal value is about the same as the BPO value.

When you meet with the bank’s property appraiser let him know the property is in foreclosure and that you’ve been working with the seller to try to do a short sale with the bank. Get that point across immediately.

You don’t want the meeting with the bank’s appraiser to be a confrontation. This is first impression time, so just be yourself and let your personality shine. Shake hands with the property appraiser. Get to know him for the five minutes before you start shoving your material on him.

The whole BPO process will probably take less than 15 minutes. You have 15 minutes to let your personality shine so make it your best effort.

During the BPO

When you go out to these appraisals, take three things; a copy of the Real Estate Purchase Contract with your offer amount, your market value comparisons and a copy of your home inspector’s report

Try to present the material in a conversational tone. Ask if he’d like a copy of the offer you have made on the property and so on. If it’s an appraiser, he will always want a copy. Realtors are a different story—you can never tell what they’re going to take. Just ask and see what he’ll take from you. An appraiser will always take the property inspection report because it’s a good, neutral indication of property damage.

Let the appraiser know that your Purchase Contract has been at least preliminarily accepted by the bank and that’s why he is appraising the market value. You’d be surprised how often the bank’s appraiser doesn’t even realize the property is in foreclosure.

You also want to share comps with the home appraiser. Most of the time, appraisers have pulled comps before they go out to the property, so you may be able to share comps to get an idea of the BPO. Make sure the appraiser knows about specific problems with the property such as; mold, termites, or foundational problems that are not readily apparent. This is something the appraiser won’t spot during his 15 minutes with the property.

Once you get these three documents into the hands of the bank’s home appraiser chances are higher that the bank’s BPO comes in close to your home appraisal value. When you get a good home appraisal value and cost estimates on that short sale property. You’ll have armed yourself with the best tools in convincing the bank to accept your low short sale offer.

Pick up more information about real estate shortsaling at Real Estate Investor.com. This is the place to go for the latest real estate news and advice. You’ll find a network of other real estate investors ready to help you out, along with free articles, blogs, contracts and documents for your use.

Japanese, Australian Stock Futures Advance Following U.S. Data; BHP Climb
Asian stocks rose, extending the benchmark index’s advance for a third day, after U.S. reports showed an unexpected increase in pending home sales, a decline in initial jobless claims and improved retail sales.

Read more on Bloomberg

Dollar Tumbles as Risk Trends Succumb to an Episode of Temporary Insanity that Fosters Optimism
After a month of chop and questionable conviction behind investor confidence, Wednesday’s price action shouldn’t surprise too many active traders. General congestion with a restrained risk-aversion bias left the capital markets exposed to a sudden revival in confidence; and that is exactly what we say for the day.

Read more on Daily FX via Yahoo! Finance

As if the home buying process isnt nerve wracking enough, an unstable market presents unique challenges to future home buyers. With the steady stream of bad news, increased foreclosures and tightened restrictions on mortgages, it can be more difficult to buy a new home now than it has been in the past. Lenders are getting picky and it can spell bad news for those individuals on the house market.

If you already qualify for a mortgage, however, and have a good income with strong credit, you can be in a prime spot to purchase a home. With declining home prices and an established mortgage, the house market is not as treacherous for established homeowners as it can be for first time buyers. There are some tips and tricks, however, to help you stay within a safe area for your future home purchase despite an unstable market scenario.

Do not over reach yourself with a large mortgage. It might be great that you can afford a certain price on paper, but you need to take the time to work out how much your mortgage payments will actually be each month.

Can you afford to have this as a monthly expense while still saving for your retirement, college, increased portfolio, or a new car? What are the bills that will accompany a house that is that large? Can you afford those along with your mortgage? What are your annual taxes? Know this information before you get too caught up in a big number that will mean little to you until you break it down in monthly installments.

Real estate agent differences can affect home buying as well. All real estate agents are not the same. Some will call you regularly while others prefer to stay quiet until they have found the exact right house for you. Ask a number of questions to your potential real estate agent to find the one that is best suited to your personality.

Do they experience with title searches? Can they help you spot potential problems with the property? Having a good real estate agent that fits your personality will make all the difference in your future home shopping experience.

Even the best real estate agent can miss some things. Look online to find crime statistics, school districts, home prices and comparables. You can find an array of quality information about your future potential neighborhood by taking the time to search online.

If you are armed with this extensive knowledge, you can make better deals and know what you are getting into with your future home. Look for virtual house tours and extensive pictures. Check out the neighborhood, the annual taxes, and much more at the touch of your fingers.

Walk the Streets of your future neighborhood. No matter how much information you find online, you cant really know a neighborhood until you spend some time there. Look for open houses in the neighborhood that are not the property you are interested in to see other homes in the area, meet the neighbors.

Drive through your future neighborhood at all hours of the day to see what kind of neighbors you would have. Are there a lot of kids, working parents, or older couples? You can find this out through your frequent drives.

Negotiate with the home sellers of your future home. You do not know what the sellers situation might be and it never hurts to try to negotiate a lower price. Although it might insult them and you could lose the house forever, some home buyers have found that asking for more in their offers has been very successful for them. If the seller is under a lot of pressure to sell or has had few offers, they might be more willing to listen to your demands.

Up front, foreclosed properties might seem like a steal. They are much less expensive and can be a great deal when it comes time to sell. However, if the homeowner has been unable to make their mortgage payments, it is highly likely that they have been able to keep up with the general maintenance of the home itself.

You will have to purchase a foreclosed property as is many times and you could be stuck with a property that has larger issues than you are willing to deal with.

When you purchase your next house, get into a mortgage you can afford. Especially for first time buyers, getting a good mortgage and knowing which lenders are right for you can be tricky. There are unethical lenders out there offering deals that are literally too good to be true.

Finding a good mortgage and lender can ensure the stability of your financial portfolio and home status. If you are caught with an unsavory lender and something bad happens in the future, the status of your home and ability to secure another mortgage will come into question. You could lose everything due to bad choices made now with your mortgage company.

Get a home inspection. You need an unbiased view of the property you are about to buy. In order to ensure that you know of all your propertys potential problems up front, it pays to get a great home inspector. You want to be able to trust the person and know that what he or she says is legitimate.

If your home inspection finds problems that far exceed what you are willing to deal with, you have the opportunity to back out before it is too late. The home inspection is the smartest way to buy a home no matter what the economic situation is.

Finally, buy your home with a long term plan in mind. A home purchase is a huge investment and the savvy buyers look to find a house that will fit them now and years down the road. You can invest in your home and make any necessary upgrades to help you grow with the property, but staying with your home will help to increase your investment and make you more financially secure in the future.

If you have bad credit, consider purchasing a house through a lease purchase or rent to own. Now is a great time to purchase a house at a fixed purchase price, and rent the house until you can afford to get your own mortgage. This gives you time to raise your credit score which will lower your monthly payments by getting a better interest rate.

In 1994, we set our sights on a house located in a pleasant, quiet suburban enclave called Bixby Knolls in Long Beach, CA.  Although we could barely afford the home’s $230,000 purchase price – a fortune for us at the time – it was a small, neat, modest home situated in a good neighborhood with appreciation potential.  So, we dove into the home buying market.  It was a perfectly manageable house located in a perfectly acceptable neighborhood.

                                                           

We did not have a clue at the time that home prices would slowly begin to climb and climb and climb thanks to an extended period of historically low interest rates. Low interest rates spurred consumer demand, which soon grew to overwhelming consumer demand for homes to call their own.  Consequently, home prices reached stratospheric levels in our neighborhood as well as in most major metropolitan markets (Texas, Oklahoma, the Dakotas and a few other affordable markets being the exception). 

Ten years later, in the middle of April 2004, a devastatingly tragic electrical fire took the lives of our beloved Italian Greyhounds, Ben and Rusty.  Although we rebuilt our home better than it was before, it was still a sad time for us; we ultimately sold our first, “first home”.  The offers made for our modest 1,600 square foot home were obscene – obscene amounts, that is.  It was undeniably the most profitable yet most heartbreaking investment of our lives.

In retrospect, recalling the loan application process and qualifying for the mortgage in order to buy our perfect little house, well, we recollect that process was NOT so perfect. 

In 1994, when we were struggling to qualify for the mortgage, we were not aware of available first time home buyer programs created for folks of low to moderate income.

Furthermore, our loan officer did not introduce us to these options, either because he was as clueless as we were about the existence of such programs or, the bank with whom he was employed at the time elected not to participate in specialty programs for first time home buyers. 

Neither we nor our loan officer had any idea the city of Long Beach, county of Los Angeles and yes, even the State of California all had available specialty loan programs designed specifically for folks like us: first time home buyers, short on cash for a 20%, 10% or even 5% down payment, not to mention funds to cover closing costs. 

We were wholly unfamiliar with mortgage credit certificate programs, below market interest rate programs, mortgage revenue bond programs, and we would have given our left arm for help with no-strings-attached gift money and forgivable grant money provided through city, county and state housing agencies. 

If we only knew . . . the home buying process would have been so much easier and much less stressful.   Driving our decision to buy a home we could barely afford was  exacerbated by our landlord’s demand we vacate the house, which was once rented by my husband and his former wife (the landlord’s daughter), within 30 days.  Great – no pressure there. . .

Fortunately, with the generous help of parents and with a loan borrowed from our 401K, we were finally able to produce a minimal down payment.   Our motivated home seller, an 80 year old retiree who wanted to move closer to her daughter in another town, helped us pay some of our closing costs through seller concessions. Then after all that, we SOMEHOW managed to scrape up sufficient funds to substantiate cash reserves to satisfy our lender and cover our personal moving expenses after escrow closed. 

Did we consider buying new furnishings and/or major appliances to update our 50 year old new house?  Fuggedaboutit!  And THEN we had to take into account recurring costs associated with debt servicing the new mortgage and maintaining our new home like water, electricity, property taxes, etc. 

If your borrowers are anything like we were back in the day, the sticker shock associated with a new home purchase and maintenance costs can discourage even the most motivated buyers.

Timely solutions to the above-described challenges may not be easily found or forthcoming at all.  Notwithstanding the charity of parents, other relatives and/or through the liquidation of assets in order to meet most lenders’ minimum mandatory requirements for down payment and cash reserves, a substantial number of  first time home buying hopefuls will consequently shelve their Dream of Homeownership.

This is the sad, sad shelf upon which dust will gather, accumulate and ultimately completely obscure the light-filled Dream of Home Ownership which once burned brightly in their mind’s eye – snuffed out, extinguished. 

What you must know is it doesn’t have to end this way.

Be the Hero.  With new information provided through the OFFICIAL LOAN OFFICER GUIDE,   solutions to the above-described challenges are placed at your fingertips.

In most real estate markets today, it remains virtually impossible for the average consumer of low to moderate income to qualify for a modestly sized mortgage without benefit of a substantial out-of-pocket investment.  Depending on a variety of qualifying factors, we’re talking a down payment investment equal to  10, 15, 20 or 25% of the home’s sales price plus closing costs (points, title, insurance, etc.). 

Be the Hero.  Be the “Go to Guy” for information about down payment assistance programs and products.

Programs like those that are the focus of the Official Loan Officer Guide will well serve your marginally qualified borrowers and help support the real estate industry overall by providing another way to shore up buyer qualifying and loan viability. 

Be the Hero.  Reserve first time home buyer program funds on behalf of your borrower before your competition does.  When I worked for a major national mortgage bank (a bank  heavily vested in first time home buyer loan programs),  I observed first hand fierce competition between loan officers and competing lenders for the right to secure programs funds on behalf of their constituencies – first time home buyers. 

I observed borrowers anxiously await word from their loan officer for assurances that they too would get their piece of the first time home buyer mortgage assistance pie.  Anything less could, and often did, jeopardize the borrower’s ability to qualify for a mortgage and close escrow on time (if ever).

A growing number of city, county and state housing finance agencies/authorities/corporations are creating new and/or fully funding existing programs to assist first time home buyers with cash money for down payment and closing costs.  Monetary assistance can be quite substantial, ranging in amounts from $5,000 to $100,000+ (amounts vary by city, county and state) or calculated as a percentage of the home’s sales price or a percentage of the first mortgage loan amount. 

Be the Hero.  Be the first in line to procure program information, educate your customer and secure funds for your stressed out client base – first time home buyers. 

Please note, programs addressed in the OFFICIAL LOAN OFFICER GUIDE are primarily used exclusively in conjunction with purchase money first mortgage loans with 30 year fixed loan terms.   Alt-A, sub-prime and non-traditional hybrid loan first mortgage loans types are strictly prohibited.

Bottom line?  There is hope, and it begins with this quick read, bare-bones approach to assisting the neophyte loan officer and veteran loan officer to better understand how such first time home buyer programs work in tandem with step-by-step processes and procedures and ways to pinpoint available programs in your borrower’s selected subject property city, town and/or surrounds.   Some first time home buyers may elect to buy (or not to buy) in a particular city or county based on the availability (or lack thereof) of first time home buyer programs. 

The OFFICIAL LOAN OFFICER GUIDE provides a fast track to inside knowledge regarding useful specialty programs created specifically to assist first time home buyers of low to moderate income on a NATIONWIDE scale.

There is a dearth of information available to educate loan officers on a nationwide scale about the many beneficial programs that are the focus of this guide.  As I complete the writing of my first book on this topic, it is my hope, desire and intention that the OFFICIAL LOAN OFFICER GUIDE: Below Market Interest Rate Programs – Down Payment Assistance Programs, First Edition, will serve to educate and empower you to help cash strapped first time home buyers produce tangible results in the form of new, affordable housing that falls within the budgetary means of all eligible citizens nationwide.

To you guys and gals in the mortgage finance trenches, you are amazing!  This book was written for you.  May you make many a first time home buyer and real estate agent happy, satisified clients by your effective utilization of the information contained within this book.

  

Best of luck to you all and happy down payment assistance hunting!

Esperanza J. Creeger

Author

www.FTHBGuru.com