How Important Is A Home Inspection?

Should I Sell My Home During The Winter?

Remember - It Is Christmas

Get a $250,000 home for the price of a $200,000 house.

If you still aren't convinced that it is a GREAT time to buy consider this:

With the low interest rates prices have just gone substantially down. Consider this a "year end close out sale" on real estate.

Interest rates are at rock bottom right now, you can purchase a $250,000 house for the same monthly payment you would have on a $200,000 house just a few months ago.

At 6.5% interest, (a historically low rate for mortgage loans) the Principal and Interest payment on a 30 year fixed loan with 20% down would be $1011 a month on  for a $200,000 house.

At 4.5% interest, the PI payment on a $250,000 home would be $1013 a month with 20% down.

Now in this example the property taxes and insurance would likely be down, and the down payment on the $250,000 house would be an additional $10,000, but the point is that home prices are incredibly affordable for those who qualify for loans. Also consider that Homes in Cache Valley in the $250,0000 plus range have dropped in value considerably over the past year. For the payment of $200,000, house you can buy what would have been a $300,000 house (and what will be again in a year or two) a year ago.

To start shopping for Cache Valley Homes visit Cornerstone Real Estate's Website.

Also visit our website for a free mortgage quote and prequalification from one of our preffered lenders.

 

 

Market Will Get Better,,And I Am First In Line!

What Happened to American Patriotism?

Why is today the best day to buy a home?

*Note I wrote this yesturday, but I wasn't able to post it until today.

 

     This morning my favorite lender gave me a call and told me that 30 year conventional fixed rates just dropped to 4.625 % (rates have bounced up a little, they are 4.75% as I type). I picked up the phone and started calling and texting everyone in my database to let them know this great news. One client that I have been looking at homes with for about 4 months asked why I was so excited about the rates. This article is what I explained to her, and I thought you might like to know what I told her.

 

In July when I first started looking at homes with this client she had met with a lender and could afford to pay a total of $1100 per month on their new home. After taking out taxes, insurance and mortgage insurance she was left with about $884 for principal and interest. This is why I was so excited. When we started looking in July, rates were 6.5% on a conventional 30 year fixed loan. At that rate they could afford a mortgage of $140,000. Today when rate dropped to 4.75% the exact same $884 will buy them a home worth $169,500.

 

Not only will the lower rate allow them to buy a larger home than they could buy just 4 months ago, prices have also come down a little in those 4 months.  Every market is different, but in July the average price for homes for sale in Logan, Utah was $207,594. Today the average in $193,724. That is a 6.6% drop. Assuming that the 6.6% drop is across the board, a house priced at $180,687 would now cost $169,500.  

 

I can only guess when the housing market will turn around, but I believe it is starting to level off, and will slowly start to go back up this summer. I also don't know what rates will do, but I don't think we will see them get much lower then this. I was always told to sell when everyone else is buying and buy when everyone else is selling and you will be way ahead.

 

Why is today the best day to buy a house? Rates are historically low, prices have come down, and the high supply of homes on the market gives buyers more ability to negotiate the price down more. If you are thinking of buying a home within the next year, now is the time to do it.

 

For more information about why today is a great time to buy a home visit me at http://uthomelist.com I would be happy to help you out.

 

Thanks,

Johnnie Rosser

jrosser@remax.net

http://uthomelist.com

 

* Note to others that may like to use this article. Feel free to use it, but please keep it in its entirety including my name and links. Feel free to add your information at the bottom. 

Should You Fix Up a House that is being Sold as a Short Sale?

I've been working on a particular short sale for about 9 months. The house is all brick, has a big yard, and is in a good neighborhood.  It should be an easy sale, but that hasn't been the case.  When I first took the listing, the owner lived there and it looked pretty good, inside and out.  It's been vacant with the power off for over 6 months and now looks distressed.  The owner took out her furniture and did some cleaning, but there are garbage bags full of trash in the driveway and misc. junk left in several rooms. The carpets are filthy and a professional cleaning would work wonders.

The house is listed at $130K, which seems to be a fair price based on condition of the property and comps.  The bank's appraisal came in at $148K and was based on comps that had sold almost a year earlier (not much activity since) and were in excellent condition when they sold. There have been lots of showings and several offers, some of them very close to the listing price, all turned down by the bank who held out for $148K.

After months of submitting evidence indicating that the bank's expectations were too high, they finally approved the last offer, four months after it was submitted, but now the buyer is in a tight monetary position and needs the extra cash for a family emergency and can't afford to fix the house up, so they walked. It's been shown several times in the last month, but everyone is turned off by what appears to be too much work. 

Dropping the price to compensate for the condition isn't a viable option, so it appears that the best bet is to get it cleaned up. The seller doesn't have money to hire it out and I think that I need to try to convince her to do the work that's needed if she wants to get it sold and avoid foreclosure.   

Short Sales: Reasons Why They Take So Long

When talking to individuals who are just getting started in short sales, I often hear the following question, "Why does it take so long to hear back from lenders about my offers?"   To help answer this common question, I pulled together a short list of possible reasons causing the long holdups. 

Naturally, this is not a conclusive list, so I would appreciate your comments and feedback on what you think are other possible reasons causing these long short sale delays.

POSSIBLE REASONS FOR DELAYS:

1.  Because of the epidemic number of U.S. foreclosures, there are just too many cases for loss mitigators to review.

In a conversation I had with a mitigator several months ago, she told me that she had over 400 short sale files she had to review.  Naturally, with this type of unprecedented case load before her and many other loan specialists, it makes it extremely difficult for mitigators to quickly review offers, order BPOs, and follow up in a timely fashion with individuals that submitted short sale offers.

2.  There are not enough experienced loss mitigators to keep up with the growing case demands.  There are a large number of unskilled mitigators still learning the ropes and ill-prepared to keep up with the excessive demands pushed on them by the growing number of homeowners defaulting on their mortgages.

3.  Short sales can take longer when there are multiple lien holders involved.  If the second lien holder wants more than the first is willing to give up, then this stalemate could add addditional weeks to the timeline before a decision on your offer is rendered. 

4.  If you haven't heard back from the mitigator since you submitted your offer months ago, it could be because your seller/homeowner is still making his mortgage payments.  Typically, lenders won't consider a short sale unless the homeowner is delinquent by three months.  So, naturally, if the seller is still making his mortgage payments on time, then the lender will be a lot less motivated to consider your short sale offer and may even just plain throw out your request.

5.  Another key reason for the long wait time in hearing back from mitigators is usually because of the investor involved in the short sale.  Yes, in case, you weren't aware of it, there is usually an investor lurking behind the scenes.  He owns the seller's note and may have imposed strict short sale guidelines.  In this situation, all offers would need to be approved by the investor(s) before the mitigator could relay/convey news back to you whether your offer is approved or not. 

6.  Another reason for the holdup is that there is frequently too many parties involved in the short sale process.  In case you weren't aware, there are usually three parties involved in the short sale review process, which can unfortunately help to lengthen the time it takes to receive word back from the loss mitigator. 

There is the Lender (or investor), the Servicer, and the MI Company.  The lender loans the borrower/seller the money to purchase the property.  The Servicer sends the seller his monthly loan statements and collects mortgage payments, and the MI Company provides insurance to protect the lender's interest in the property in the event the seller or borrower defaults on the loan. 

Since PMI is always required when the borrower's LTV ratio exceeds 80%, this would naturally explain why the MI Company would be involved in short sales where the seller has little or no equity in the property.  Also, this would help to explain why it can take mitigators considerably longer to get back to you on short sales falling within the parameters described.

Well, this sums up my list of reasons for the LONG WAIT TIMES in receiving news from mitigators on short sale offers.  Again, if you have other reasons you'd like to add here, please be sure to leave me your comments.

AUTHOR CREDITS:

 "Short Sales:  Reason Why They Take So Long," from Tracy Miller's Blog:  Short Sales & More!  (Material Copyrighted 2008. Tracy Miller; All Rights Reserved.)   Tracy's blog published at Active Rain Real Estate Network (www.activerain.com/blogs/tracyshortsales).  It is permissible to reprint, repost, reblog this material.  Please reprint material with the author's information included.  It is preferred that reprints of this material are published with this exact same "Author Credits" footer depicted or included at the bottom of any reproductions.

Fed Lowering Interest Rates to 4.5% -- Well Not Exactly -- But Close.

The news is buzzing with talk about the Fed lowering interest rates to 4.5% in an effort to increase home purchases. (Please keep in mind that this low rate is just talk...no banks are offering 4.5%). This idea is similiar to the recent Tarp bailout plan to purchase $500 billion in mortgage-backed securities from Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac, along with the options to buy out another $100 billion in low performing mortgage debt.

This news of the Government's help has caused bond prices to spike, forcing lower interest rates. It is important to remember that the Federal Government does not directly dictate home loan rates....they simply have the ability to influence buyer sentiments and investors by fueling cash in the market. Rates are determined by the price movements of Mortgage Backed Securities, which compete for investor funds in the market. With the governments fueling cash in our market rates are being held down superficially.

The truth of the matter is that we don't know what the negative effects of this potential bailout is going to have on interest rates or how our government will function in the future. What we do know is that current rates are 5%! A historical low for the last 48 years. This coupled with home prices down by upwards of 10%......Why isn't every first time homebuyer taking up this unique opportunity to purchase a home?

So the Gary McNinch Team is asking all our potential buyers "What are you waiting for?" We have the lowest rates in 48 years, the advantage of a recent home price reduction of up to 10%, and lots of first time homebuyer programs. Give us a call, visit our website www.RentonHomeFinder.com and search for homes.