simi valley ca homes: CALHFA Returns As Option For First Time Buyers - 09/19/10 03:30 PM
Post by Ken Grech, a top Simi Valley real estate agent. Search Simi Valley real estate listings. Here's some highlights from an interesting article that was in today's Sunday Ventura County Star paper written by Elizabeth Alvarez.
The California Housing Finance Agency recently announced updated programs to help first-time home-buyers. While this agency cannot offer a cure-all for the real estate market, this is a welcome bit of good news for consumers who are considering buying a home. First, to clear up a common confusion regarding mortgage lingo: First-time home-buyer is a technical term for ANY person who has not owned … (0 comments)
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simi valley ca homes: 29 Essential Tips That Get Homes Sold Fast (And For Top Dollar) Part 4 - 08/25/10 04:16 PM
Post by Ken Grech, a top Real Estate Agent. Search Simi Valley Real Estate listings.
Tip #24: Don't give yourself a deadline. Forcing yourself to sell by a certain date adds unnecessary pressure and puts you at a serious disadvantage in negotiations.
Tip #25: Don’t take a low offer personally. Make sure it spells out the offering price, adequate earnest money, amount of down payment, mortgage amount, a closing date and any special requests.
Tip #26: A really low offer may mean the buyer is not qualified. Ask how they arrived at their figure, then suggest their agent use comparables to … (0 comments)
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simi valley ca homes: 29 Essential Tips That Get Homes Sold Fast (And For Top Dollar) Part 3 - 08/25/10 04:12 PM
Post by Ken Grech, a top Real Estate Agent. Search Simi Valley Real Estate listings.
Tip #16: Disclose everything. Smart sellers proactively go above and beyond the laws to disclose all known defects to their buyers-in writing. If the buyer knows about a problem, he cant some back with a lawsuit later on.
Tip #17: The more prospects, the better. By maximizing your home's marketability, you'll increase your chances of attracting more than one prospective buyer.
Tip #18: Don't get emotional during negotiations. If you can just let go of the emotion you've invested in your home and approach negotiations in … (0 comments)
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simi valley ca homes: 29 Essential Tips That Get Homes Sold Fast (And For Top Dollar) Part 2 - 08/25/10 04:10 PM
Post by Ken Grech, a top Real Estate Agent. Search Simi Valley Real Estate listings.
Tip #7: Find a good realtor. Nearly two-thirds of the people who sell their own home say they wouldn't do it themselves again, according to research by the National Association of Realtors.
Tip #8: Give yourself room to negotiate. In setting your asking price, review your priorities. Do you want to maximize your profit or sell quickly? You'll price high for the former and closer to market value if the latter is the case.
Tip #9: Maximize your home's sales potential. Each year. corporate North America … (0 comments)
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simi valley ca homes: 29 Essential Tips That Get Homes Sold Fast (And For Top Dollar) Part 1 - 08/25/10 04:03 PM
Post by Ken Grech, a top Real Estate Agent. Search Simi Valley Real Estate listings.
Selling your home is one of the most important steps in your life. Here are 29 essential tips you must know...
Tip #1: Know why you're selling. The reason you look closely at why you want to sell is that your motivations play an important role in the process. They affect everything from setting a price to deciding how much time and money you'll invest to getting your home ready for selling.
Tip #2: Once you know, keep it to yourself. Your reasons will affect how … (1 comments)
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simi valley ca homes: Home Buyers: How To Avoid Paying Too Much Part 3 - 08/16/10 07:43 PM
Post by Ken Grech, a top Simi Valley Real Estate Agent. Search Simi Valley Real Estate listings.
Tip #19: Check your emotions at the door during negotiations. One of the costliest mistakes you can make is letting the seller's know how much you love their home.
Tip #20: Don't be pressure into a quick deal if it doesn't feel right. It may be a sign that there's something you should know but don't.
Tip #21: Don't be afraid to negotiate. Negotiation is the key to getting a good deal.
Tip #22: Stay out of bidding wars. If there is another buyer, … (0 comments)
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simi valley ca homes: Home Buyers: How To Avoid Paying Too Much Part 2 - 08/16/10 07:41 PM
Post by Ken Grech, a top Simi Valley Real Estate Agent. Search Simi Valley Real Estate listings.
Tip #8: Shop with your head, not your heart. Don't forget the purpose of your "needs" and "desires" lists. Your heart will cost you money; using your hearts will save it.
Tip #9: Don't ignore red flags when evaluating a home's pluses and minuses. When evaluating the advantages and drawbacks of a particular property, be sure you know the difference between acceptable and unacceptable problems.
Tip #10: Hire a professional home inspector. Spending a few hundred dollars on a professional home inspection is the … (0 comments)
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simi valley ca homes: Home Buyers: How To Avoid Paying Too Much Part 1 - 08/16/10 07:37 PM
Post by Ken Grech, a top Simi Valley Real Estate Agent. Search Simi Valley Real Estate listings.
Finding the right home to meet your family's needs is hard enough.But knowing how to avoid paying too much for that home once you've found it is another job entirely. The tips included here will go a long way into helping you become a savvy buyer.
Tip #1: Know what you're shopping for before you start. Before you begin shopping, understand that there are two homes out there vying for your interest-the one that meets your needs vs. the one that fulfills your desires.
… (0 comments)
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simi valley ca homes: Mortgage Rates Fall to 4.8%, Home Buyers Still Scarce - 06/02/10 02:22 PM
Post by Ken Grech, a top Simi Valley real estate agent. Search Simi Valley real estate listings. The Wall Street Journal, By Nick Timiraos:
Mortgage rates fell again last week, sending refinancing applications up. But in a sign that the housing market may be stumbling through a stimulus-induced hangover, new-purchase applications also fell again to a 13-year low.
Average 30-year mortgage rates fell to 4.8% last week from 4.83% the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. While rates on 15-year fixed-rate loans rose to 4.25% from 4.19%, the average fees charged to borrowers fell, effectively lowering the rate.
That helped refinance … (0 comments)
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simi valley ca homes: Housing's New Normal: Wait and See - 06/02/10 02:17 PM
Post by Ken Grech, a top Simi Valley real estate agent. Search Simi Valley real estate listings. The Wall Street Journal, By Dawn Wotapka:
The housing market-especially for new homes-is having a great Wednesday.Luxury builder Toll Bros. this morning reported a narrower quarterly loss and said that in May's first three weeks, per-community deposits have climbed 23%, while traffic is up 11% from a year earlier. Chief Executive Bob Toll says consumers feel more confident in job security and their ability to sell existing homes. "It appears our business has finally emerged from the tunnel and into a bit of daylight," he says."We … (0 comments)
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simi valley ca homes: Tax Credits Boost New Home Sales - 06/02/10 02:10 PM
Post by Ken Grech, a top Simi Valley real estate agent. Search Simi Valley real estate listings. The Washington Post, By Renae Merle:
New home sales surged last month as home buyers rushed to take advantage of tax credits that have helped lift the housing market, according to government data released Wednesday.
Sales of new single-family homes rose 14.8 percent in April, compared with March, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 504,000, according to Commerce Department data. Sales were up 47.8 percent, compared to the same period a year ago. That was a much bigger jump than financial analysts had expected, bringing … (0 comments)
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simi valley ca homes: Delinquency Drop Shows Impact of FHA Measures - 05/26/10 02:30 PM
Post by Ken Grech, a top Simi Valley real estate agent. Search Simi Valley real estate listings. American Banker, By Sara Lepro and Kate Berry:
In a surprise reversal, the delinquency rate on single-family mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration has fallen in each of the last three months amid record volume.
Stable housing prices and higher-quality loans are aiding the agency's recovery, though FHA Commissioner David Stevens cautioned that the mortgage market is still on federal life support.
"Let's be real - it's still a government-financed market," Stevens told a group of industry executives Monday at a Mortgage Bankers Association conference in … (0 comments)
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simi valley ca homes: U.S. Regulator Says Mortgage Lenders Stabilizing - 05/26/10 02:25 PM
Post by Ken Grech, a top Simi Valley real estate agent. Search Simi Valley real estate listings. The New York Times/REUTERS:
The U.S. thrift industry reported its third consecutive quarter of profit, earning $1.82 billion during the first three months of the year.
The Office of Thrift Supervision, which largely regulates mortgage lenders, said on Monday that earnings more than quadrupled from the prior quarter, and that overall it seemed that the thrift industry is stabilizing.
However, earnings were still suppressed by the additional $2.7 billion the industry tucked away during the quarter in anticipation of more loan losses, many tied to bad mortgages.
… (0 comments)
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simi valley ca homes: Tax-Credit Rush Boosts Home Sales - 05/26/10 02:18 PM
Post by Ken Grech, a top Simi Valley real estate agent. Search Simi Valley real estate listings. The Washington Post, By Dina ElBoghdady:
Sales of previously owned homes surged in April to higher levels than analysts expected as buyers rushed to take advantage of a lucrative tax credit before it expired along with low interest rates and affordable prices, according to industry data released Monday.
Sales of existing homes, which consist mainly of single-family houses, town homes and condominiums, jumped 7.6 percent in April from March to a seasonally adjusted rate of 5.77 million units, the National Association of Realtors reported. Sales were up … (0 comments)
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simi valley ca homes: CitiMortgage Exits Jumbo Wholesale - 05/19/10 02:46 PM
Post by Ken Grech, a top Simi Valley real estate agent. Search Simi Valley real estate listings. American Banker, By National Mortgage News:
CitiMortgage, a top ten player in wholesale lending, will no longer fund non-agency jumbo mortgages through loan brokers, National Mortgage News has learned.
A New York area broker that has used the bank for years said he received notification on Monday, and a spokeswoman for Citi confirmed, that "we are not currently offering jumbos through the broker channel."
The bank-owned lender, however, will continue funding jumbos through its retail channel.
The spokesman said CitiMortgage offers "attractively priced" jumbo mortgages to … (0 comments)
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simi valley ca homes: Data Firms Going Deeper on Mortgages - 05/19/10 02:40 PM
Post by Ken Grech, a top Simi Valley real estate agent. Search Simi Valley real estate listings. The Wall Street Journal, By Prabha Natarajan:
Investors' quest for more nitty-gritty details on borrowers of home loans and real-estate trends have spawned a new industry for data providers.
Credit bureaus are using data-mining techniques to make detailed consumer and loan-level information easily available to residential-mortgage-backed-securities investors and analysts-not just when the securities are created, but also whenever they are sold in secondary markets. The expectation is that such analysis will prevent situations where buyers of bonds and other financial products tied to mortgages know little … (0 comments)
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simi valley ca homes: Housing Market Holds its Ground - 05/19/10 02:31 PM
Post by Ken Grech, a top Simi Valley real estate agent. Search Simi Valley real estate listings. Los Angeles Times, By Alejandro Lazo:
Southern California's housing market held its ground in April, data released Tuesday show, with prices rebounding off their year-earlier lows but sales slipping for the first time in nearly two years as the number of fast-selling foreclosure properties dwindled considerably.
The median price for all Southland houses, town homes and condominiums sold last month was $285,000, a 15.4% increase from the April 2009 bottom, when foreclosures accounted for more than half the resale market. But the closely watched median -- … (1 comments)
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simi valley ca homes: "Where Can I Get the Lowest Rate?" - 05/12/10 02:30 PM
Post by Ken Grech, a top Simi Valley real estate agent. Search Simi Valley real estate listings. The following is taken from Kiplinger Report dated June 10, 2010 “Where can I get the lowest rate?”
Some mortgage brokers may be able to give you a wholesale rate that beats the rate from a bank’s loan officers. Known as correspondent lenders, they are typically large brokers that do the underwriting and immediately sell the loans they originate to wholesale lenders or investors-meaning they can both find you a loan and approve it. If you’re trying to get a loan, a mortgage broker may also offer more … (0 comments)
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simi valley ca homes: Now Is The Time To Buy! - 05/12/10 02:24 PM
Post by Ken Grech, a top Simi Valley real estate agent. Search Simi Valley real estate listings. I hope you find the following article very informative. From Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine, May 2010
This spring, opportunity is knocking hard for home buyers. Aside from the soon-to-expire tax credit worth as much as $8,000 (you must have a contract by April 30 and close the deal by June 30), affordability has returned to pre-boom levels and mortgage money is cheap, with the 30-year fixed rate hovering around 5%.
Unless you area is rife with foreclosures that promise to drag down prices, there’s little reason to wait … (0 comments)
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simi valley ca homes: Fannie Tightens Rules - 05/05/10 02:38 PM
Post by Ken Grech, a top Simi Valley real estate agent. Search Simi Valley real estate listings. South Florida Sun-Sentinel, From News Services:
Mortgage finance company Fannie Mae is tightening standards for the adjustable-rate and interest-only loans that fed the housing boom and contributed to the bust.
The company said it will require mortgage lenders to consider how high a borrower's mortgage payments might rise after teaser rates expire.
Fannie Mae said it will enact tighter standards for "interest only" loans that allow borrowers to avoid making principal payments for several years. To obtain those loans, borrowers taking out new mortgages must … (1 comments)
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