WE HAVE MORE MORTGAGE INSURANCE RESTRICTIONS ON OUR HOMES IN FLORIDA!  And this is Florida only.  Asset Managers and Foreclosure Realtors pay attention.

Effective Monday, March 9th, all attached housing in the state of Florida will be limited to a 80% LTV on conventional financing.  Yes, attached PUD's and Townhomes are now too much of a risk for the Mortgage Insurance Companies in the State of Florida only.

Why do I keep saying "In the State of Florida only."  Granted there are four states that are, in my opinion, being drastically penalized by Mortgage Insurance companies and FannieMae/FreddieMac.  However, Florida seems to be the one state targeted, how do I say, more severely than any other state.

As I stated in a previous blog the Mortgage Insurance companies started with Condo's and limiting the maximum loan amount to 80%.  Then FannieMae came out and if the existing project wasn't approved by them they were limiting the maximum loan amount to 75% for primary residences, 70% for a vacation home and 0% for investors.

So where does this leave us for the First Time Home Buyers, you ask?  FHA and VA for vets.

The First Time Home Buyers are the ones that are going to revitalize the market.  These are the ones who will be willing to take the chance of purchasing a home with the little money they've saved or received as a gift from family members.  But money is tight and they don't have the 20% to 25% down to buyer a home.  So again the answer is FHA and VA.

So Realtors who specialize in REO educate your Assets Managers on what's really going on in the market.  Make sure you have fully qualified buyers with valid offers and sell it to the bank's Asset Manager.  I have qualified buyers who are going FHA, either because the need to or they want to keep some money in the bank for repairs and emergencies, but who keep getting their contracts turned down because of the loan program.

Let's sell some homes, reduce the inventory out there, save some money for the banks and earn some money too!  We can do it!