FHA and Investor Specialist

Buying a Home

Buying a home is probably the biggest investment you will make, with long-term financial ramifications. It calls for many informed decisions and for good advice from a real estate professional. When buying a home, you can learn from the knowledge and skill of a Real Estate Agent.

What can a Real Estate Agent do to help you buy the right home for you?

 

• They will help you determine how much home you can actually afford. Often, they can suggest additional ways to accrue the down payment and explain alternative financing methods. They can also introduce you to a mortgage counselor and arrange to have you "pre-approved" which can improve your negotiating position and enable you to achieve your home-buying objectives faster and with less stress.
• Providing client level services, they can work for you as a buyer's agent and help negotiate the best price and terms for you. Or, they can serve as a seller's sub-agent (or disclosed dual agent), acting as a liaison between you and the seller to present offers and counteroffers until an agreement is reached.
• They will help you work out a realistic idea of the home best suited to your needs - size, style, features, location, accessibility to schools, transportation, shopping, and other personal preferences.
• They have access to a listing of all available homes in the multi-list system, can evaluate them in terms of your needs and affordability, and will not waste your time showing you unsuitable homes.
• They can often suggest simple, imaginative changes that could make a home more suitable for you and improve its utility and value.
• They can supply information on real estate values, taxes, utility costs, municipal services and facilities, and may be aware of proposed zoning changes that could affect your decision to buy.
• Although the law does not normally require an attorney to review documents or oversee real estate closings, they can provide you with a list of law practitioners to choose from if you would like to use the services of an attorney.
• They can help familiarize you with the closing process and they will obtain closing figures in advance of closing for your review.
• They can provide you with a list of qualified home inspectors, pest inspectors, surveyors, and help to coordinate inspection appointments.

 

Top 10 Tips to Successful Home Buying

Tip #1: Research Is The Key To Discovery

Home sellers won't call you with an offer to buy a maintenance-free home with a wonderful mortgage. You have to find the gems yourself! Only by reading available materials, talking to friends and experts, and spending time looking at different homes, schools, and neighborhoods will you end up with your American dream. Avoid the nightmares by learning how best to buy and maintain a home.

Tip #2: Make A Plan And Get Pre-Qualified

Every important decision needs to be clearly thought out. Developing a home buying plan can help you focus on the important factors and organize the entire process. You may even want to use a binder with sections on house hunting, home financing, service providers, etc. Loan pre-qualifying helps you determine the home price you can afford and presents you as a genuine prospect to the seller. A lender typically uses the 28% formula (your monthly mortgage can't exceed 28% of your monthly income) in approving your loan. Planning your actions and getting pre-qualified will keep you out of the panic mode and allow you to take advantage of opportunities. A thorough plan will save both time and money!

Tip #3: Value, Value, Value

The days of 10-30% annual appreciation have passed. Homebuyers in the 1970's benefited tremendously from what seemed like ever appreciating home prices. Nowadays, you're looking at slow growth while guarding against the possibilities of falling prices, skyrocketing ARM rates and corporate layoffs that can dramatically affect your home values. The classic rule of buying the worst house in the best neighborhood still applies. If you buy with an eye towards improvement, you can customize the home to fit your needs. The saying, "make money buying a home, not selling one," should keep you focused on the long-term importance of the purchasing price.

Tip #4: Create A Top 10 List Of Amenities

When shopping for a home, list the features (fireplace, fenced-in yard, new appliances, etc.) that are most important to you in deciding on which home to buy. Establishing "your criteria" early on will save time shopping for inappropriate homes and may keep you from buying a home on a whim. As detailed in Tip #3, your top reason for buying a home should be the value you are getting. Some of your top 10 amenities should logically be sacrificed if an incredible value is available.

Tip #5: Fixed vs. Adjustable Rate Mortgages

Which type of loan fits your particular needs? If this will be your first home or a "transitional home" -- one you plan to own for a short time, an ARM may be the best type of loan. If it's going to be your dream home or one you plan to raise a family in, then you may want the stability of a fixed rate mortgage. If you choose an ARM, the index should be based on the Cost of Funds Index if rates are increasing, and Treasury Bills if they are decreasing. The COFI's are less volatile over time than T-Bills; make sure the teaser rate is understood and what the real rate would be.

Whichever loan you choose; make sure that you scrutinize all the closing costs. If you are required to have a mortgage escrow account and private mortgage insurance, make sure you understand the terms and cancellation procedures (your Real Estate Agent has publications to assist you). Also, make sure there are no prepayment penalties so that you can utilize an accelerated mortgage plan. A good mortgage reduction plan can save you tens of thousands in interest costs, and shorten your loan term, with only small extra principal payments. If you experience negative changes in your job, health, or marital status, you can revert to the standard payments in your mortgage contract.

Tip #6: Sign A Contract That Protects You

Make sure that the contract you put on a house allows you to arrange financing, inspect the home and negotiate any problems that you uncover. Ensuring that the contract you sign will minimize potential legal battles will let you swim in your new pool with your family and neighbors instead of with the sharks.

Tip #7: Put Yourself In The Seller's Shoes

You are about to make one of the most important decisions that will affect both your life and the life of the seller. If you take time to understand the reasons the seller bought the home, their reasons for selling, and the home improvements they have or have not made, you'll be in a better position to evaluate the home and negotiate a better deal. In the end, the home buying process excludes the professionals and comes down to the individuals buying and selling the home. A closer look at the seller may help you in deciding whether and for how much to buy a particular home.

Tip #8: Develop A Mortgage Shopping Chart

One of the biggest decisions to make before putting a contract on a home is how to finance the purchase. There are 10,000 lenders competing for your mortgage business. The days of simply walking into the community bank and negotiating with the loan department manager are over. Today, you can apply for a loan over the Internet or even use a mortgage broker to shop for your loan with hundreds of lenders. When choosing a lender, you want to avoid apples to oranges contrasts by comparing fixed rates to fixed rates, not fixed to ARM's. Create a chart that lists different types of loans, fees, and at least five mortgage providers (including a mortgage broker).

Tip #9: Get A Quality Home Inspection

Although it is hard to believe, more people pay for inspections before buying used cars than when making the biggest investment of their lives - their homes. Paying for a qualified home inspection before you buy a home isn't just spending "a little extra" for peace of mind; it's absolutely essential for anyone who doesn't want to spend thousands of dollars for repairs.

Tip#10: Peace Of Mind: Home Protection Plans

To protect both you as a buyer, as well as the seller, it is a good idea to purchase a home protection plan.  What exactly is it? A home warranty, or home protection plan, is a service contract, normally for one year, which protects homeowners against the cost of unexpected repairs or replacement of their major systems and appliances that break down due to normal wear and tear. A negotiable contract between the buyers and sellers which does not overlap or replace homeowner's insurance policy, this type of warranty can save the new homeowner lots of headaches, as well as put seller's fears to rest. The warranty covers mechanical breakdowns, while insurance typically repairs the related damage. For example: if a hot water heater burst and destroyed a wall in your home, the warranty would repair the water heater and your insurance would pay to fix the wall.

Please go to my website http://www.JoeAtwal.com for more useful real estate realted articles.

8 Reasons Why You Should Work With a REALTOR® 

Not all real estate practitioners are REALTORS®. The term REALTOR® is a registered trademark that identifies a real estate professional who is a member of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION of REALTORS® and subscribes to its strict Code of Ethics. Here's why it pays to work with a REALTOR®. 

 1. Navigate a complicated process. Buying or selling a home usually requires disclosure forms, inspection reports, mortgage documents, insurance policies, deeds, and multipage settlement statements. A knowledgeable expert will help you prepare the best deal, and avoid delays or costly mistakes.

 2. Information and opinions. REALTORS® can provide local community information on utilities, zoning, schools, and more. They'll also be able to provide objective information about each property. A professional will be able to help you answer these two important questions: Will the property provide the environment I want for a home or investment? Second, will the property have resale value when I am ready to sell?

 3. Help finding the best property out there. Sometimes the property you are seeking is available but not actively advertised in the market, and it will take some investigation by your REALTOR® to find all available properties.

 4. Negotiating skills. There are many negotiating factors, including but not limited to price, financing, terms, date of possession, and inclusion or exclusion of repairs, furnishings, or equipment. In addition, the purchase agreement should provide a period of time for you to complete appropriate inspections and investigations of the property before you are bound to complete the purchase. Your agent can advise you as to which investigations and inspections are recommended or required.

 5.  Property marketing power. Real estate doesn't sell due to advertising alone. In fact, a large share of real estate sales comes as the result of a practitioner's contacts through previous clients, referrals, friends, and family. When a property is marketed with the help of a REALTOR®, you do not have to allow strangers into your home. Your REALTOR® will generally prescreen and accompany qualified prospects through your property.

 6. Someone who speaks the language. If you don't know a CMA from a PUD, you can understand why it's important to work with a professional who is immersed in the industry and knows the real estate language.

 7. Experience. Most people buy and sell only a few homes in a lifetime, usually with quite a few years in between each purchase. Even if you have done it before, laws and regulations change. REALTORS®, on the other hand, handle hundreds of real estate transactions over the course of their career. Having an expert on your side is critical.

 8. Objective voice. A home often symbolizes family, rest, and security - it's not just four walls and a roof. Because of this, homebuying and selling can be an emotional undertaking. And for most people, a home is the biggest purchase they'll every make. Having a concerned, but objective, third party helps you stay focused on both the emotional and financial issues most important to you.

Dallas Chambers

RE/MAX Agents Realty

Office:  770-922-7777 X316

Cell:     770-595-1541

Web: www.dallaschambers.com 

E-Mail:  dallasc@remax.net

Each Office Independently Owned and Operated.  All information deemed reliable but not guaranteed.

There are many kinds of house hunters looking to buy property with a VA home loan. Do you know what the difference is between an active duty reservist, an active duty military member, a retiree or an honorably discharged vet who isn’t considered “retired”?

Active duty military members are the easiest to classify—they’re the ones serving day in and day out. They signed up, went to basic training and technical school and are full-time Airmen, Soldiers, Sailors, Marines or Coast Guardsmen. When active duty military members apply for a VA mortgage, they’re required to show not only that they’re still on active duty and in good standing with the military via a military ID card or a Leave and Earning Statement—but they also must provide a signed statement by their unit commander or a designated representative that indicates the dates of the current active duty service commitment or the length of their current military assignment.

Compare that to the requirement that retirees and honorably separated military members have to show proof of service; in most cases it’s simply a matter of making a copy of the DD form 214 which acts as proof of service and also shows the nature of the discharge. Those who left the military under circumstances other than fully honorable may have a difficult time getting qualified for a VA mortgage.

Many people assume that a discharge that isn’t listed as honorable acts as a permanent barrier to getting military benefits like a VA mortgage, but this isn’t always the case. Those who get some types of military discharges classified as other than honorable may be eligible to appear before a discharge review board and apply to have the military discharge upgraded to honorable.

In these cases, buyers and sellers should never assume that a certain kind of discharge is an immediate barrier to getting a VA loan and being able to purchase the property. Buyers should consult with the nearest regional office of the Department of Veterans Affairs to see what rules may apply in that particular circumstance. In part two of this post we’ll take a look at what the proof of service requirements are for members of the National Guard and the Reserves.

FHA Loan Program Highlights

FHA guidelines provide substantial credit flexibility and other benefits to borrowers.

FHA loans are not credit score driven. Instead, they are written in a way that provides the borrower the benefit of the doubt that there had been, at some point in their past, circumstances beyond their control, and as long as the borrower has recovered from those circumstances in a reasonable manner, they're generally going to be credit-eligible for an FHA loan. The FHA guidelines are forgiving about circumstances that many other lending programs, including conventional, are not favorable towards. The FHA states that a borrower, recovering from a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, can be eligible for an FHA loan two years after being discharged. An exception can be made after 1 year if the bankruptcy was due to extenuating circumstances that can be documented and are not likely to recur. To be eligible for an FHA loan after a foreclosure, a three-year wait time is required after being discharged. An exception to the 3 year rule can be made if the foreclosure was due to extenuating circumstances that can be documented. If the borrower has filed for a Chapter 13 bankruptcy or is in a consumer credit counseling program (where the borrower has re-established a negotiated repayment term based on their credit items), and has been on the plan for 12 months making consistent payments on time, the borrower will be eligible for an FHA loan. Automated Underwriting: Capability to Reach Higher Ratios Automated underwriting is a valuable tool that allows you to qualify borrowers at higher ratios, therefore allowing them to buy a larger home for the same amount of money, combined with low interest rates available through the FHA. However, it is not available to most high LTV first time home buyer loan programs, such as the emerging markets national program and other programs from non-conforming lenders. If the borrower has a clean credit profile and decent asset reserves, it is not uncommon to see higher debt-to-income ratios get approved through an automated underwriting system for FHA-insured loan programs. Source of Down Payment Flexibility An FHA-insured loan allows a wide variety of assets to be used to cover the buyer's down payment and closing costs. FHA guidelines require a 3.5% minimum investment from the borrower; however, those funds can be from a gift or from a variety of other sources. FHA considers gift funds to be the same as if they were the borrower's own funds truly seasoned for sixty days in the borrower's account, or proven to be from other eligible sources. FHA guidelines also allow fund sources such as mattress money, or lease option credits to be used, as they are lenient about how the borrowers can procure the down payment money. As an added bonus, the FHA is very liberal about what they will let the seller pay in the way of the buyer's closing costs and pre-paid items. The seller can pay up to 6% in concessions towards the buyer's closing costs, pre-paids and discount points. Great Rates and Low Monthly Mortgage Insurance A distinct advantage of an FHA insured loan, as compared to a conforming loan, is great interest rates and lower monthly mortgage insurance (MI). Depending on the lender, standard FHA loan interest rates are usually better than a conforming 30-year fixed loan. Also, the monthly mortgage insurance premium on any FHA loan is only .055% per year (.50% for FHA Streamline refinances), with the exception of 15 year loans, which have only a .25% annual with an LTV greater than 90% and a .25% annual for less than 90% LTV. Compared to a conforming loan, this is substantially less expensive than most of the high LTV conventional programs. Safest ARM Currently Available on the Market FHA guidelines give you the option of doing hybrid Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARM), including a 3/1 ARM and a one year ARM that has the lowest adjustment caps of any ARM in the industry. Both the FHA hybrid ARM options and the FHA one year ARM options have interest rate adjustment caps of 1% per year and 5% over the life of the loan compared to standard conforming loans in which the caps are usually set at 2% and 6%, respectively. They also tend to have a much lower margin compared to the standard treasury ARM options. The loan margin in a conforming loan is usually 2.75%, whereas FHA loans generally have a 2% margin depending on the lender and program. Property Types Allowed Another advantage of an FHA loan program is the variety of properties that can be used. While FHA Guidelines do require that the property be owner occupied (OO), they do allow you to purchase condos, planned unit developments, manufactured homes, and 1?4 family residences, in which the borrower intends to occupy one part of the multi-unit residence. Streamlined Refinance and Assumable Loans One of the most important advantages of an FHA loan is the ability for the loan to be assumed. This gives the buyer a significant advantage in a high interest rate market in that anyone qualifying for a loan through their existing lender could come in and assume liability for the loan and replace the borrower as the owner of the property. FHA loans are eligible for streamlined refinance, a program HUD offers that allows the borrower to easily refinance the loan to reduce their interest rate and lower their monthly payment. As long as they are current on the loan, they are generally eligible for a streamlined refinance with no additional credit, income, or asset documentation required. This feature makes it very easy to refinance an FHA loan. How to Get Started Visit one of the following web sites to learn more about FHA loan programs: www.hud.gov - FHA/HUD official government web site. www.hudclips.org - HUD's official repository of policies, procedures, announcements, and other materials. https://entp.hud.gov/clas - Online access to request an FHA case number, verify a borrower's credit, reassign an appraiser, identify and correct data on the closed loan, transfer pipeline cases, add/change/terminate an underwriter, transfer servicing, submit default reports, submit HMDA reports, and more www.federalhousingauthority.com/ - Unofficial FHA web site with a lot of good information.

Pat Killeen
Mortgage Advisor
(502) 472-0889
pkilleen040@gmail.com

Refinancing Your Home Loan - Is Now the Right Time?  by RJ Baxter First Mortgage Corp Evergreen Colorado

Mortgage rates have been low for quite some time, and despite several spikes upward, they always seem to come back down.  Because of  this, every day people ask me if it's the right time for Refinancing Your Home Loan.  Should you wait for rates to get lower, or jump in and get it done at the historically low rates we have been seeing lately?

There are many signs that rates will be going up in the near future.  Refinancing Your Home Loan now, in my opinion, is the prudent thing to do.  It's not like 5% on a 30 year fixed mortgage is a bad rate, and the possibility of rates going much lower is slim.

Here are 4 reasons why now is the time for Refinancing Your Home Loan and why rates are likely heading up this year:

Inflation:  In the era of government bailouts, money has been running off the printing presses like mad.  National debt has soared, and the money supply is being increased.  Why is this bad?  Because it leads to inflation. Inflation is not a problem yet, but it's virtually certain that in the not-too-distant future it will be.  Inflation is bad because it erodes the yields on long term debt such as the bonds that back mortgages.  Lenders have no choice but to raise rates in order to realize the gains they are looking for.  The net result- higher mortgage rates for you.

Feds Exiting Stimulus Programs:  On March 31st, the government ended a program that for over a year has been partially responsible for keeping rates down.  Now that the government's program  of buying mortgage-backed securities has ended, there will be more supply on the market.  The laws of supply and demand dictate that prices for mortgage-backed securities must fall if supply increases but demand stays steady.  Lower bond prices = higher mortgage rates.

Economy:  The economy is showing signs of life.  Why is this bad for mortgage rates?  In a good economy, businesses are doing well, and stocks show nice gains.  This means that investors start putting their money in riskier investments such as stocks, and taking it out of less risky investments such as bonds.  Again, supply and demand- if there is less demand for bonds, prices will fall, and mortgage rates correspondingly go up.

No reason to wait:  With rates at historical lows, around 5%, there is no reason to wait on Refinancing Your Home Loan.  If you wait a few months to get perhaps 1/8% lower in rate (and that may not even be possible), then you have 3 more months of payments and more interest at your current rate.  The savings you would have with the slightly lower rate would be offset by your higher payments for the months you were waiting on Refinancing Your Home Loan.  With rates at historic lows, there is no reason to pass up 5% while you can still get it.

RJ Baxter First Mortgage Corp

Branch Manager

303-670-0137 (direct)

Email Me

27902 Meadow Drive, Suite 120

Evergreen, Colorado 80439

Evergreen, Colorado Mortgage Blog

Denver Home Loans

If there is a question we get more often than any other it has to be….

“Where are all the REOs…..I see vacant homes everywhere..yet, only a small fraction are listed and for sale…what gives..?”

I understand why we get this question….

After all Harris Real Estate University is the nation’s largest online real estate university. The HREU RSD (REO Specialist Designation) has become one of the preferred designations for many Asset Management companies….in other words, they look for RSD Agents to list their properties.

In today’s post we will answer the question, “where are all the REO’s”….and provide you with a clear window into what is coming next….

Agents, you need to be very clear about what you can do now to become a REO Listing Agent. Understand, in NO WAY is it too late for you to become a REO listing agent.

After you have read this post you will want to take the next step…this Thursday April 15th we are providing a FREE 90 Minute teleconference (or webinar) where you will hear directly from agents who ARE listing REOs (and making big bucks from doing BPOs).

Watch the FREE Agent REO Secrets video and grab your FREE How-To list REOs book….when you do we will also invite you to this weeks teleconference. <—Go here to watch the free video, grab the How-To list REOs book…and you will be invited to this weeks teleconference.

OK, lets get started by looking at the real numbers and facts about REOs.

This is from Real Estate Economy Watch:

Despite a slight seasonal improvement over last month, mortgage delinquencies still hover near record highs, 21 percent above a year ago. One of ten mortgages are delinquent as of the end of February and new delinquencies continue to run at record rates.

The total number of non-current first-lien mortgages and REO properties is now more than 7.9 million loans. Furthermore, the percentage of new problem loans is also at its highest level in five years. More than 1.1 million loans that were current at the beginning of January 2010 were already at least 30 days delinquent or in foreclosure by February 2010 month-end.

That’s the frightening news from Lender Processing Services latest Mortgage Monitor Report, which also reported that the nation’s foreclosure inventories also reached record highs. February’s foreclosure rate of 3.31 percent represented a 51.1 percent year-over-year increase.

Other key results from LPS’ report:

• Total U.S. loan delinquency rate: 10.2 percent

• Total U.S. foreclosure inventory rate: 3.3 percent

• Total U.S. non-current* loan rate: 13.5 percent

• States with most non-current loans: Florida, Nevada, Arizona, Mississippi, California, New Jersey, Georgia, Illinois, Ohio and Indiana.

• States with fewest non-current loans: North Dakota, South Dakota, Alaska, Wyoming, Nebraska, Montana, Vermont, Colorado, Washington and Minnesota.

Non-current totals combine foreclosures and delinquencies as a percent of active loans in that state. Totals based on LPS Applied Analytics’ loan-level database of mortgage assets.

Here is a great video from CNBC:

Next, a report from sun-sentenial:

Short sales and foreclosures accounted for 29 percent of all U.S. home sales in January, First American CoreLogic says.

Riverside, Calif., led the nation’s top 25 markets with so-called distressed sales accounting for 62 percent of the transactions. Las Vegas (59 percent) and Sacramento (58) were the next worst. Fort Lauderdale was at 42 percent and Miami was at 32 percent, although those numbers are down compared with a year ago.

Although Florida and foreclosures seemingly are synonymous, only two Florida markets — Orlando and Cape Coral — cracked the top 10 for distressed sales. CoreLogic, a California research firm, says the most likely reason is that foreclosure cases take longer to process in the Sunshine State than in California, Arizona or Nevada.

What do you think about the number of distressed sales in South Florida?

And now to the heart of matter….Where are all the REOs and when will the banks FINALLY RELEASE them?

Rick Sharga from RealtyTrac:

Certain things in life are simply meant to be mysteries. There are age-old philosophical questions that have kept philosophers busy for millennia: What is the sound of one hand clapping? If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there, does it still make a sound? Other mysteries hang heavy with intrigue: What really happened to Amelia Earhart? And who really kidnapped the Lindbergh baby? And still others simply defy logic: If Denny’s is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, why are there locks on the doors?

Now we can add another question to the list of ongoing mysteries: With foreclosure activity breaking records nearly every month, where are all the REOs?

It’s a fair question. In normal market situations, a bank will repossess a home and usually process it through to a listing agent to put on the MLS within 30 days. In a relatively short period of time, virtually every marketable REO property finds itself listed for sale on the local MLS. Today, that’s simply not the case; it’s likely that between 450,000 and 500,000 properties repossessed over the past year are still not on the market. And with buyers hungry for housing bargains, and agents and brokers champing at the bit ready to sell the properties, it begs for a reasonable answer.

Lenders and servicers admit that it’s taking longer to process REOs than it has in the past, and they offer a number of legitimate reasons:

1. -Many of the properties have title issues that need to be resolved
2. -Many of the properties are in states of utter disrepair
3. -A number of states have strict redemption rights periods, which prevents the lender from reselling the property
4. -A few states have extended the length of eviction proceedings
5. -The sheer volume of REO activity has created a “pig in the python” phenomena, (to put this in perspective, there will be roughly four times the number of REOs this year as in the last “normal” year, 2005)

What else could be slowing things down? A popular theory is that many banks are holding the properties off the market in order to defer losses. There is some accounting logic to this theory, as in most cases banks aren’t required to adjust asset prices until the actual resale of the property. Another idea is that the industry is holding back the inventory to create leverage with the government in order to force the creation of a “toxic bank” or RTC-like entity that would buy the distressed assets at 50 to 60 cents on the dollar rather than the 30 to 35 cents available on the market today. This theory suggests that, seeing the threat of a massive inventory of distressed homes being released all at once, the government would “blink” rather than risk another housing market meltdown.

I will add…the various government programs have served to delay the inevitable. How many months (years?) are added to the foreclosure process now…If someone missed payment..maybe missed 1 – 2 years of payments…..applies for HAMP (Loan Mod)…then, when that doesn’t work out…lists their home as a short sale…..(if they don’t list it with an agent who knows how to sell short sales)….off to foreclosure. How long would that whole protracted process take…years…and years.

Whatever the reason — process issues or conspiracies — we’re going to continue to see record-breaking numbers of REOs for at least the next year, and will all be watching to see when these sought-after homes finally make their way to the market.

OK, get the picture yet? We have a long way to go…literally millions of bank owned homes that must be sold. Now, the question that I have for you…are you ready to become a REO Listing Agent? Its NOT TOO LATE for you. Watch the FREE Agent REO Secrets video and download your FREE How-To List REOs Book.

For those of you who are thinking that the Great Housing Crash is over…and a housing boom will soon return…
Another CNBC Video featuring Yale Shiller (of Case/ Shiller Housing Index fame)

Popularity: unranked [?]

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Remington Financial Group, Inc. - How Hard Money Works.

Remington Financial Group is equipped to handle the expedited closings of 30 days or less, which makes it unique in the lending space. Our firm does it by preparing all of the necessary underwriting resources (attorneys, appraisers, etc.) to review and approve a loan very quickly.

RFG employs a lower loan to value ratio than a traditional lender might, which allows the firm to recover its investment should the need arise.

Also, Remington often times skips traditional underwriting steps, such as evaluating a borrower's credit rating or examining his experience level, as a means to progress the loan more quickly. We require a water tight appraisal of the property that ensures RFG can tolerate the high risk.

Also, RFG will always require an appropriate exit strategy. If a borrower can not share how the loan will be repaid, in reasonable terms, we will not make the deal. Remington Financial Group has no interest in taking possession of a property and does not view foreclosure as a suitable exit strategy, but we can work with you to identify an appropriate strategy.

Remington Financial Group, Inc. - Benefits of Hard Money to a Commercial Broker

In the course of a commercial broker's career, the need for a hard money loan will most definitely arise. By forging a solid relationship with a hard money source, a broker has a resource to serve clients in need of a fast-closing loan. Keep in mind, too, that Remington Financial Group values brokers and is broker friendly.

Remington Financial Group - Loan Process 

1. Submit Business Plan / Executive Summary
2. Pre-qualification determination process - project is reviewed and evaluated resulting in:
   • the project being accepted
   • proposed revisions being issued for the project
   • the project being declined
3. Lender / Investor conceptual interest is obtained along with projected terms and the proposal is issued
4. Due-Diligence document checklist of typically requested data is prepared and sent to client
5. Analysis of all documents, preparation and packaging of the data for submission to designated lender/investor;
   formal due-diligence commences
6. Term Sheet/Conditional Commitment and/or Firm Commitment issued
7. After Term Sheet/Conditional Commitment and/or Firm Commitment are accepted, a site visit and market analysis will commence
8. Closing | Capitalization | Funding

A new Avid Ratings survey (The Kitchen is Still King) of more than 22,000 recent homebuyers shows some of the 'in' things homebuyers want these days as well as some that are no longer in favor in this age of frugality. The survey is used by home builders to try to address the moods and wants of the home buying public as buyers are demanding more and paying less. 

Some items that are in demand right now:

• Space is in - but not necessarily huge homes. More livable space
• Big kitchens with an island
• Bigger secondary bedrooms
• Home offices or studies
• Main floor master bedrooms
• Large showers with sitting area
• 2 and preferably 3 car garages
• Nearby children's playground and walking paths
• Green features - appliances & windows

What's not?

• Community health clubs
• Dog parks
• Golf courses
• Dominant or focal point stairways
• Dining rooms
• Media rooms
• Dead space
• Too much glass
• Whirlpool tubs

Interesting to note how tastes change every few years. Of course large kitchens and bedrooms have always been popular but as more people tend to 'nest' in their homes, the kitchen - great room is even more popular. Formal dining rooms have been going out for years now yet many builders still incorporate this traditional touch. Media rooms were popular a decade ago as the trend to mini-mansions was in vogue. Buyers today are looking for practicality and usability over ostentation. Some amenities that used to command premiums like golf courses and community facilities are deemed not worth the extra cost by many - although a segment of the population will always demand and expect those little niceties.

And of course foremost on everybody's mind, though not addressed in this poll - affordability, low interest rate and EQUITY. I know that's what I'd like to have in my home. I suspect a lot of folks would give up a lot of must have's and don't cares for a few grand in equity. 

You can check out the whole LA Times article here: 'What do Home Buyers want in a home? Survey says...'