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FICO helps mortgage servicers combat strategic defaults

2011-10-12T18:47:00.000-07:00

FICO helps mortgage servicers combat strategic defaults announced that it has agreements with four of the nation’s top 10 U.S. mortgage servicers to try to identify the borrowers most likely to attempt a strategic default.

In a strategic default, borrowers who can afford to make their mortgage payments choose instead to stop paying and go through foreclosure, generally because they’ve determined that the hit to their credit score is preferable to the cost of keeping the home. Roughly 35 percent of mortgage defaults are strategic, according to the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. FICO estimates the cost at more than $20 billion annually.

FICO uses an algorithm to analyze a lender’s pool of mortgage holders, and while it looks at a number of traits, it focuses largely on the six million U.S. homeowners with current-loan-to-value ratios of 120 or higher – a group considered twice a likely to consider a mortgage default.

A foreclosure or short sale does not always relieve the homeowner of a debt obligation, and lenders might not forgive an outstanding debt. While each lender handles strategic defaults in its own way, banks could use the new FICO information to take a hardline stance on owners who chose a strategic default.

“Preventing strategic defaults … is especially worth looking into, because this technology has the ability to help lenders … identify borrowers who are most at risk and minimize related losses,” says Craig Focardi, senior research director at TowerGroup, a Corporate Executive Board company.

© 2011 Florida Realtors®
* This information is meant to be helpful and for informational purposes ONLY*
Meyling Calero
Easy Home Realty
Lic. Real Estate Sales Associate
Short Sale Specialist
MeylingCalero@aol.com
(305)771-5154
www.MeylingRealEstate.com
2011 Women's Council of Realtors VP of Membership
2010 Women's Council of Realtors Secretary
2009 Women's Council of Realtors Treasurer
2008 Women's Council of Realtors Ways and Means Chair

For more information on your Real Estate needs or concerns, contact Meyling at MeylingCalero@aol.com or Visit www.MeylingRealEstate.com

State may expedite Florida foreclosures

2011-10-11T19:02:00.000-07:00

OVIEDO, Fla. – Oct. 11, 2011 – Retirees Neil and Marilyn Strawbridge haven’t made a mortgage payment so far this year, and yet Bank of America has not sent them even a foreclosure notice.

With foreclosures taking an average of 21 months to get through the court system in Florida – longer than in almost any other state – the couple could presumably continue forgoing payments and still stay for years in the three-bedroom, waterfront home with pool that they bought a quarter century ago.

“I no longer have any problem not making payments,” said 72-year-old Neil Strawbridge, who had never missed making at least partial payments until last December, when Bank of America rejected his request to permanently lower his monthly payment.

His lawyer, Justin Clark, has advised the couple to try protecting their credit by selling the house before the bank files for foreclosure and seizes it. But Neil Strawbridge, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1995, said he could see himself and his wife simply staying put until the day comes when they are forced to leave.

Florida is among 26 states that require banks to file foreclosures through the court system, a process that takes an average of 728 days to complete, according to Lender Processing Services. In states where foreclosures aren’t routinely handled by the courts, a foreclosure takes an average of 550 days to process, from default notice to repossession, the research firm reported recently.

Pressured by the Florida Bankers Association, state lawmakers are now grappling with the lingering court process.

Legislators are considering proposals that would divert non-contested foreclosures from the courts, allowing banks to handle them in much the same way they repossess cars. If such a measure became law, it would likely affect houses entering foreclosure after June 2012.

State Sen. David Simmons, R-Altamonte Springs, said that, while the foreclosure process needs to be expedited, Florida homeowners shouldn’t lose their day in court – if they want it.

“A non-judicial foreclosure remedy doesn’t solve an immediate problem for us. ... We need to focus on courts cleaning out the backlog sooner,” said Simmons, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The immediate problem, as Simmons said, includes not only the 22,000 Floridians who received a foreclosure-related legal filing in July alone, according to the research company RealtyTrac Inc. It also includes homeowners like the Strawbridges who haven’t received a foreclosure notice but who have been sitting tight without making payments for months and months.

“I’ve talked to some judges who believe foreclosures are not being filed because banks don’t want to pay association fees – they don’t want the property yet because they can’t liquidate it fast enough,” he said. “We don’t want to be too quick to condemn the judicial system. The delays are, in fact, partially due to lenders not wanting to have the property on their real estate rolls.”

Ripping off the bandage

No one tracks the number of homeowners who have stopped paying their mortgages but are able to continue living in their houses without drawing a foreclosure notice from their lender. But one of the main reasons the foreclosure process has slowed in Florida and elsewhere is because banks temporarily stopped adding cases to the court system about a year ago and pulled many others from the system when it became apparent that documents in some cases had been lost or illegally signed.

Banks have also been criticized for agreeing to short-term, trial mortgage modifications for customers, only to later refuse to grant any kind of long-term solution for the strapped homeowners, many of whom are living in houses now worth half what they paid for them just a few years ago.

With foreclosures taking almost a half-year longer in Florida than in states that don’t require a court process, the Sunshine State has fallen behind California in recovering from the nationwide housing slump in part because the West Coast state doesn’t funnel foreclosures through its courtrooms, said Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic Inc., a California-based analytical company.

“Ripping the Band-Aid off quickly helps house prices stabilize and rebound better than ripping it off slowly,” said Fleming, though he added that a longer foreclosure process might give local markets more time to recover and a better chance of absorbing houses that revert to bank ownership.

Planning next move

In Oviedo’s Twin Rivers community, the grass surrounding the Strawbridges’ home is thick and green. A small sign shows a lawn-treatment company fertilized it. Even though they aren’t making loan payments, the couple still tries to maintain the house.

They started having trouble making their $2,298 mortgage payments, the result of a refinanced loan, when Neil Strawbridge retired two years ago from his job managing a coffee service. Their income further eroded when Marilyn, 61, cut her hours as a nursing aid about a year ago to get her degree as nurse practitioner from Seminole State College. They handled the $1,194 payments that Bank of America agreed to as part of a four-month trial, but the giant lender refused to extend the offer.

The couple like the suburban feel of the Oviedo/Winter Springs area and say that, if and when they lose their home, they will likely move into a smaller, modular house nearby, which will cost them about $40,000 of their cash savings.

Sitting on his pool lanai, Neil Strawbridge said he and his wife grew tired of wrangling with the bank over the loan modification. “We decided we just couldn’t do this anymore,” he said.

Clark, the Strawbridge’s lawyer, says the majority of the clients he sees in the couple’s situation have not made a mortgage payment in 18 months.

“Most people come in after at least a year of trying to deal with the bank,” he said, at which point “they’re either homicidal or suicidal.”

Short selling

Clark said he’s not convinced the foreclosure process would speed up if the Legislature diverts mortgage-default cases from state courts.

And until the state changes the process, he added, homeowners must time their exit strategy so that they save some of the money they would have been putting toward mortgage payments without getting dinged by a foreclosure on their credit report, which can haunt a consumer’s credit history for as much as seven years.

Clark advises such homeowners to try selling their houses as short sales – for less money than the mortgage balance – which ultimately requires their lender’s cooperation. The Strawbridges, for instance, owe about $200,000 on their home and think it could possibly sell now for about $120,000.

The short-sale process in Florida is faster than the foreclosure process, taking about 410 days on average to close from the time a property’s lender files the first foreclosure notice, according to RealtyTrac.

Even at that pace, the Strawbridges could stay in their home without making payments for another year or more. But first they have to get a foreclosure notice.

Copyright © 2011 The Orlando Sentinel, Orlando, Fla., Mary Shanklin; Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. Distributed by MCT Information Services.

* This information is meant to be helpful and for informational purposes ONLY*
Meyling Calero RMG Realty Group Inc.
Lic. Real Estate Sales Associate
Short Sale Specialist
MeylingCalero@aol.com
(305)771-5154
www.MeylingRealEstate.com
2011 Women's Council of Realtors VP of Membership
2010 Women's Council of Realtors Secretary
2009 Women's Council of Realtors Treasurer
2008 Women's Council of Realtors Ways and Means Chair

For more information on your Real Estate needs or concerns, contact Meyling at MeylingCalero@aol.com or Visit www.MeylingRealEstate.com

Bank of America: $20,000 short sale incentive to struggling homeowners

2011-10-08T06:36:00.000-07:00

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Oct. 7, 2011 – Bank of America, the nation’s largest mortgage servicer, is offering Florida homeowners up to $20,000 to short sale their homes rather than letting them linger in foreclosure.

The limited time offer has received little promotion from the Charlotte, N.C.-based bank, which sent emails to select Florida Realtors earlier this week outlining basic details of the plan.

Only homeowners whose short sales are submitted for approval to Bank of America before Nov. 30 will qualify. The homes must have no offers on them already and the closing must occur before Aug. 31, 2012.

A short sale is when a bank agrees to accept a lower sales price on a home than what the borrower owes on the loan.

Realtors said the Bank of America plan, which has a minimum payout amount of $5,000, is a genuine incentive to struggling homeowners who may otherwise fall into Florida’s foreclosure abyss.

The current timeline to foreclosure in Florida is an average of 676 days – nearly two years – according to real estate analysis company RealtyTrac. The national average foreclosure timeline is 318 days.

“I think this is a positive sign that the bank is being creative to try and help homeowners and get things moving,” said Paul Baltrun, who works with real estate and mortgages at the Law Office of Paul A. Krasker in West Palm Beach. “With real estate attorneys handling these cases, you’re talking two, three, four years before there’s going to be a resolution in a foreclosure.”

Guy Cecala, chief executive officer and publisher of Inside Mortgage Finance, called the short sale payout a “bribe.”

“You can call it a relocation fee, but it’s basically a bribe to make sure the borrower leaves the house in good condition and in an orderly fashion,” Cecala said. “It makes good business sense considering you may have to put $20,000 into a foreclosed home to fix it up.”

Homeowners, especially ones who feel cheated by the bank, have been known to steal appliances and other fixtures, or damage the home.

“This might be the banks finally waking up that they can have someone in there with an incentive not to damage the property,” said Realtor Shannon Brink, with Re/Max Prestige Realty in West Palm Beach. “Isn’t it better to have someone taking care of the pool and keeping the air conditioner on?”

A spokesman for Bank of America said the program is being tested in Florida, and if successful, could be expanded to other states.

Wells Fargo and J.P. Morgan Chase have similar short sale programs, sometimes called “cash for keys.”

Wells Fargo spokesman Jason Menke said his company offers up to $20,000 on eligible short sales that are left in “broom swept” condition. Although the program is not advertised, deals are mostly made on homes in states with lengthy foreclosure timelines, he said.

And caveats exist. The Wells Fargo short sale incentive is only good on first lien loans that it owns, which is about 20 percent of its total portfolio.

Bank of America’s plan excludes Ginnie Mae, Federal Housing Administration and VA loans.

Similar to the federal Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives program, or HAFA, which offers $3,000 in relocation assistance, the Bank of America program may also waive a homeowner’s deficiency judgment at closing.

A deficiency judgment in a short sale is basically the difference between what the house sells for and what is still owed on the loan.

HAFA, which began in April 2010, has seen limited success with just 15,531 short sales completed nationwide through August.

But Realtors said cash for keys programs can work.

Joe Kendall, a broker associate at Sandals Realty in Fort Myers, said he recently closed on a short sale where the seller got $25,000 from Chase.

“They realize people are struggling and this is another way to get the homes off the books,” he said.

© 2011 The Palm Beach Post (West Palm Beach, Fla.), Kimberly Miller. Distributed by MCT Information Services

* This information is meant to be helpful and for informational purposes ONLY*
Meyling Calero
Easy Home Realty
Lic. Real Estate Sales Associate
Short Sale Specialist
MeylingCalero@aol.com
(305)771-5154
www.MeylingRealEstate.com
2011 Women's Council of Realtors VP of Membership
2010 Women's Council of Realtors Secretary
2009 Women's Council of Realtors Treasurer
2008 Women's Council of Realtors Ways and Means Chair

For more information on your Real Estate needs or concerns, contact Meyling at MeylingCalero@aol.com or Visit www.MeylingRealEstate.com

5 Credit Myths - BUSTED!

2011-10-07T04:15:00.000-07:00

Written by Tara-Nicholle Nelson
Trulia
October 5, 2011 4:21 PM

When it comes to credit, sometimes the largest challenge is the most difficult to surmount: we simply don’t know what we don’t know, so our assumptions and inaccurate beliefs run wild and free through our mental real estate. Most of the time, there’s no harm; following finance fundamentals like paying every bill on time, every time, keep us out of credit danger zones.

But when it’s approaching the time to buy, refi or even rent a home, relatively small credit score differences can stop you from getting your dream home, and can cost (or save) you thousands of dollars in interest over the life of your loan.

If you’re at a time in your life where it makes sense to invest some time and effort into optimizing your credit score, here are five common credit myths we’d like to help you bust without further ado:

Myth #1: Having lots of cash, a great income, or tons of equity, makes your FICO score less relevant.

Fact: No matter how much cash you have, if you want a mortgage, you must meet the lender’s FICO score guidelines. Of course, if you’re flush with cash, it should be relatively easy to make your monthly payments on time. But if you have come into cash relatively recently or you’re coming off a rough financial patch, lenders don’t not look at your credit score on the theory that your other assets diminish your credit riskiness. Most lenders want nothing more than to avoid having to foreclose on a home, even if the homeowner has other assets.

And the best predictor of whether you’ll default on a loan in the future is how you’ve handled your credit in the past, so your credit score will drive whether you qualify for a home loan and what interest rate you’re charged, no matter how much you make.

Two exceptions: if you buy a home with all cash, or take a hard money loan, which usually requires a much larger-than-average down payment and interest rate, you might be able to bypass credit score scrutiny, but you’ll pay for it.

Myth #2: Having no debt or no late payments means you have great credit.

Fact: Financial responsibility and good credit are two different things. Your FICO score is meant to be a measure of your responsibility when it comes to managing debt, as proven by the fact that you have credit accounts, use them regularly and don’t abuse them.

Having no credit accounts or debts doesn’t give you good credit - it gives you no credit. And on the other end of the credit usage spectrum, being maxed out on various credit accounts all the time, submitting lots of credit applications and other credit moves that indicate you may abuse your credit can actually depress your score. Best practice is to have several credit accounts (student and car loans count!) that you actively and responsibly use on a monthly basis.

Tip: FICO gives a top score to accounts with balances that are 30 percent of the credit limit, so if you can keep your credit card or loan account balances at or around that mark, even better.

Myth #3: Checking your own credit score in advance prevents surprises when you apply for a mortgage.

Fact: Your mortgage originator (broker or banker) must pull their own version of your report from their own provider, and it might have a very different score, rating scale or even different line items than the free or paid report you pulled online. This is why it’s imperative to start working with a mortgage professional as early as possible - a year in advance is not overkill - so you can detect any errors or issues and get their recommended fix in the works with plenty of lead time.

Myth #4: If you’ve had a foreclosure or short sale, your credit report will be damaged for 7 years.

Fact: Derogatory credit items, like late mortgage payments, foreclosures and short sales, appear on your credit report for 7 years, but your credit score can be rehabilitated enough to buy a home or obtain other credit in less time, depending on your circumstances. Your post-short sale or foreclosure waiting period depends on a number of things, including what type of loan you’ll be seeking to buy your next home with, how much cash you’ll have to put down and whether there were any extenuating circumstances involved in losing your home in the first place; some loans allow for an immediate purchase, others require a waiting period of 2, 4 5 or even 7 years after the loss of a home.

Of course, your FICO score is also a key criteria in a post-home loss “buy,” but interestingly enough, the length of time it takes to get your FICO score back up depends on how high it was beforehand. Earlier this year, the New York Times reported that it would take a consumer with a 680 FICO score three years after a foreclosure to bring their score back to that level, while it might take someone with a 780 FICO score (near-perfect) seven years for full score recovery.

And keep in mind that as your foreclosure or short sale ages, its impact on your score will decrease, too.

Myth #5: Short sales have much less impact on your credit score than foreclosures.

Fact: Hear ye, hear ye - short sales and foreclosures have the same impact on your credit score, according to the FICO folks themselves. (The only exceptions are for short sales or deeds-in-lieu of foreclosure where the property was not upside down, which are few and far between, if they’re not just a real estate urban legend!)

However, the number of missed payments you had before your home was lost to foreclosure or short sale might weigh on how gravely injured your FICO score is in the process. At the going rate at which banks are foreclosing on homes - clocking roughly 2 years of missed payments before a home is repossessed - your FICO score could take an even greater hit than if you were able to divest of it via a short sale in 1 year’s time.

* This information is meant to be helpful and for informational purposes ONLY*
Meyling Calero
East Home Realty
Lic.Real Estate Sales Associate
Short Sale Specialist
MMeylingCalero@gmail.com
(305)771-5154
www.MeylingRealEstate.com

2011 Women's Council of Realtors VP of Membership
2010 Women's Council of Realtors Secretary
2009 Women's Council of Realtors Treasurer
2008 Women's Council of Realtors Ways and Means Chair

For more information on your Real Estate needs or concerns, contact Meyling at MeylingCalero@aol.com or Visit www.MeylingRealEstate.com

Rick Scott, GOP to consider taking courts out of foreclosure process TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Sept. 22, 2011 – The push is on in Florida to cut the courts out of the foreclosure process.

2011-09-22T19:18:00.000-07:00

Rick Scott, GOP to consider taking courts out of foreclosure process TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Sept. 22, 2011 – The push is on in Florida to cut the courts out of the foreclosure process.

Supporters of the concept – which is used in nearly 30 states – say it will speed foreclosures, get houses back onto the real estate market and boost the economy.

Opponents say it puts property owners at the mercy of banks.

Gov. Rick Scott, House Speaker Dean Cannon and Senate President Mike Haridopolos all say they are interested in considering legislation to change Florida laws so judges won’t have to referee foreclosures.

And the House Civil Justice Subcommittee on Tuesday heard a presentation on foreclosures detailing states that include courts in the process versus those that don’t.

Bottom line: Foreclosures take longer and are more expensive in states that involve courts, said state economist Amy Baker.

“I don’t want to leave you with the impression that the data suggests the judicial process is a terrible process,” Baker told lawmakers. “It’s actually ultimately a policy decision on where you want the burden to be, where you want the rights protection to be.”

Florida has the nation’s second highest foreclosure rate, and is one of 20 states that require all foreclosures to go through the court system.

Court action isn’t needed in Michigan, Arizona, California and Nevada – other states with high foreclosure rates. On average, foreclosure proceedings in those states take from 392 days in Arizona to 511 in California, according to Jacksonville-based Lender Processing Services.

In Florida it takes 638 days.

That’s too long, Scott said in a recent interview with the Times/Herald.

“It’s not good for anybody in the process,” he said. “It costs money. Either the homeowners lose money or the lenders lose money, and the longer it takes, it slows down what actually happens in the real market.”

Scott said he is eager to learn more about how making the switch might impact Florida’s housing market.

“If we do go down that path does it really change anything?” he said. “ And we’ve got to make sure that citizens are treated fairly. We can’t create an environment where the homeowners aren’t treated fairly.”

In 2010, the Florida Bankers Association pushed unsuccessfully to change the state’s law so judges didn’t need to sign off on foreclosures, a process called nonjudicial foreclosure.

Much of the state’s housing crisis is caused by a glut of homes awaiting foreclosure, said Anthony DiMarco, executive vice president of government relations for the association.

“If you can move more quickly, properties can get back on the market, and it will stimulate the economy,” he said. “You won’t have blight. Property taxes will get paid. Condo fees and homeowners association fees will be paid. People will buy paint and furniture.”

But state Rep. Darren Soto, D-Orlando, who fought the 2010 legislation, said he will fight it again if it returns in 2012.

“I don’t think we need to be replacing people’s rights with expediency, particularly when we’re talking about property rights,” said Soto, a lawyer who represents homeowners facing foreclosure. “This is a homesteader’s right to access the courts. I can’t think of any property right more important.”

Even in state where judges aren’t forced to preside over foreclosure cases, property owners can take the proceedings to court.

But the filing fee alone costs almost $2,000 in Florida, Soto said. “That’s cost prohibitive for most people, and that’s not including the legal fees you’d have to incur to fight it,” he said.

At the least, Soto said legislation should include an exemption for homesteaded property owners who could be fighting to save their home.

© 2011 The Miami Herald, Janet Zink. Distributed by MCT Information Services
* This information is meant to be helpful and for informational purposes ONLY*
Meyling Calero
RMG Realty Group Inc.
Lic. Real Estate Sales Associate
Short Sale Specialist
MeylingCalero@aol.com
(305)771-5154
www.MeylingRealEstate.com
2011 Women's Council of Realtors VP of Membership
2010 Women's Council of Realtors Secretary
2009 Women's Council of Realtors Treasurer
2008 Women's Council of Realtors Ways and Means Chair

For more information on your Real Estate needs or concerns, contact Meyling at MeylingCalero@aol.com or Visit www.MeylingRealEstate.com

Fewer real estate agents expect price drops

2011-09-19T18:02:00.000-07:00

EMERYVILLE, Calif. – Sept. 19, 2011 – Most real estate professionals and homeowners expect home values to decrease or stay the same through the end of the year, according to HomeGain’s third quarter survey. While the outlook remains dour, however, a higher percentage of real estate agents seem to think their market area has hit bottom and is rebounding.

In Florida, one in five (22 percent) real estate professionals surveyed expect prices to rise over the next six months, as did 22 percent of homeowners. That’s second only to Arizona, where 33 percent of agents anticipate a price increase and 29 percent of homeowners.

Nationally, 11 percent of real estate professionals expect home values to increase in the next six months, down one percent from last quarter; 12 percent of homeowners expect home values to increase, down 3 percent from last quarter.

According to the survey, 47 percent of agents and brokers and 45 percent of homeowners think that home values will decrease over the next six months. However, agents’ attitudes have become slightly less pessimistic since the second quarter (50 percent expected price declines) even though homeowners have become more pessimistic (30 percent expected price declines).

An almost equal number of agents and homeowners expect selling prices to remain roughly the same for the next six months, with 42 percent of agents expecting the status quo to continue compared to 43 percent of homeowners.

According to agents and brokers, 75 percent of homeowners believe their homes are worth more than the agent’s recommended listing price. In contrast, 68 percent of homebuyers believe homes are overpriced.

The five states with a rising outlook about home prices – Arizona, Florida, Texas, California and Ohio – were generally hit hard by the real estate crisis and now may be bouncing back. The five top states where agents expect prices to decline include New Jersey (77 percent of agents expect a six-month price drop), Pennsylvania (75 percent), North Carolina (68 percent), Georgia (62 percent) and Virginia (58 percent).

Over 500 real estate agents and brokers and over 2,200 homeowners were surveyed.
© 2011 Florida Realtors®

* This information is meant to be helpful and for informational purposes ONLY*
Meyling Calero
Easy Home Realty
Lic. Real Estate Sales Associate
Short Sale Specialist
MeylingCalero@aol.com
(305)771-5154
www.MeylingRealEstate.com
2011 Women's Council of Realtors VP of Membership
2010 Women's Council of Realtors Secretary
2009 Women's Council of Realtors Treasurer
2008 Women's Council of Realtors Ways and Means Chair
For more information on your Real Estate needs or concerns, contact Meyling at MeylingCalero@aol.com or Visit www.MeylingRealEstate.com

Luxury home foreclosures a deal for well-heeled

2011-09-08T18:31:00.000-07:00

“There are $4 million estates in Lutz and the Riverview area that are now less than $1 million,” said Keller Williams real estate agent Rande Friedman. “There’s a condo in Channelside that was $1.5 million, and now it’s $700,000.”

Most homeowners have seen values drop, but these prices are so low because the homes are owned by a bank. And the bank wants to get rid of them.

There are so many foreclosed luxury homes that Friedman created a website to list them. In three weeks, PoshForeclosures.com already has about 400 local listings.

The Tampa Bay area and Florida are among the hardest-hit by foreclosures in the country. Friedman has a theory on why the foreclosure crisis finally caught up to the rich.

“A lot of the people who got into the luxury market in 2005, 2006 were making their money from real estate,” he said. When the market crashed, so did their incomes.

Plus, just like the rest of the population, many luxury buyers took out adjustable-rate mortgages. Many of them have come due recently. That, combined with job loss and sinking home prices, led to an uptick in foreclosures of luxury homes.

That means hundreds of high-end homes sit abandoned. But that could be good news for those ready to buy. Homes and condos along the beaches and downtown condos are among the most popular luxury foreclosures, Friedman said.

Potential buyers of luxury foreclosures also don’t have to worry about trashed homes as much as buyers of lower-end houses. That’s because banks usually take better care of them, Friedman said.

“People are still living in them, maintaining them, so they’re not the deserted, desolate foreclosure feeling,” Friedman said. “They really are truly nice properties.”

That’s true, said Daren Blomquist, spokesman for RealtyTrac, which tracks foreclosure activity nationwide.

“It’s in the bank’s best interest to fix up the home and get in the best shape possible before trying to sell it,” Blomquist said. “That way, they may get a better price.”

Getting the best price matters even more, he said, when the homes are expensive. That’s why lenders often give owners of luxury homes more time to work something out.

“We find that with mortgages of more than $1 million, lenders wait longer to file for foreclosure,” he said. “By the time they foreclose, the mortgages are much deeper in default.”

That said, Blomquist said he’s noticed lenders of these million-dollar homes acting to foreclosure much more quickly this year.

“While this category of mortgages still has a low foreclosure rate, this category is also seeing the largest increase in initial foreclosure filings, compared to less expensive mortgages,” Blomquist said.

PoshForeclosure.com currently lists foreclosed homes that are for sale in Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas counties.

On the website there are estates that were listed at $1.5 million in 2006 and are now being sold for $500,000.

“All buyers are expecting great deals these days, and upper-end buyers are especially savvy,” Friedman said.

Copyright © 2011 the Tampa Tribune, Tampa, Fla., Shannon Behnken. Distributed by MCT Information Services.

* This information is meant to be helpful and for informational purposes ONLY*

Meyling Calero
Easy Home Realty.
Lic. Real Estate Sales Associate
Short Sale Specialist
MeylingCalero@aol.com
(305)771-5154
www.MeylingRealEstate.com
2011 Women's Council of Realtors VP of Membership
2010 Women's Council of Realtors Secretary
2009 Women's Council of Realtors Treasurer
2008 Women's Council of Realtors Ways and Means Chair

For more information on your Real Estate needs or concerns, contact Meyling at MeylingCalero@aol.com or Visit www.MeylingRealEstate.com

Feds sue big banks over sales of risky investments

2011-09-07T18:52:00.000-07:00

Feds sue big banks over sales of risky investments NEW YORK (AP) – Sept. 6, 2011 – The government on Friday sued 17 financial firms, including the largest U.S. banks, for selling Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac billions of dollars worth of mortgage-backed securities that turned toxic when the housing market collapsed.

Among those targeted by the lawsuits were Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., JP Morgan Chase & Co., and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Large European banks including The Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays Bank and Credit Suisse were also sued.

The lawsuits were filed by the Federal Housing Finance Agency. It oversees Fannie and Freddie, the two agencies that buy mortgages loans and mortgage securities issued by the lenders.

The total price tag for the mortgage-backed securities sold to Fannie and Freddie by the firms named in the lawsuits: $196 billion.

The government didn’t say how much it is seeking in damages. It said it wants to have the securities sales canceled and wants to be compensated for lost principal, interest payments as well as for attorney fees.

The government action is a big blow to the banks, many of which have seen their stock prices fall to levels not seen since the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009. Until now, the stocks have been undermined mostly by unrelated worries about the U.S. and European economies.

It is particularly damaging to Bank of America, which bought Countrywide Financial Corp. in 2008 and Merrill Lynch in 2009. All three are being separately sued by the government for mortgage-backed security sales totaling $57.5 billion.

After Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase was listed in the lawsuits with the second-highest total at $33 billion. Royal Bank of Scotland followed at $30.4 billion.

Bank of America has already paid $12.7 billion this year to settle similar claims. Last month insurer American International Group Inc. sued the bank for more than $10 billion for allegedly selling it faulty mortgage investments.

In a statement Friday, Bank of America rejected the claims in the government’s lawsuits.

Fannie and Freddie invested heavily in the mortgage-backed securities even after their regulator said they didn’t have the needed risk-management capabilities, the bank said. “Despite this, (Fannie and Freddie) are now seeking to hold other market participants responsible for their losses,” it said.

Bank stocks fell sharply on Friday as news of the government’s lawsuits emerged. Bank of America tumbled 8.3 percent, JP Morgan Chase fell 4.6 percent, Citigroup lost 5.3 percent, Goldman shed off 4.5 percent and Morgan Stanley’s ended down 5.7 percent.

Residential mortgage-backed securities bundled pools of mortgages into complex investments. They collapsed after the real-estate bust and helped fuel the financial crisis in late 2008.

The FHFA said the mortgage-backed securities were sold to Fannie and Freddie based on documents that “contained misstatements and omissions of material facts concerning the quality of the underlying mortgage loans, the creditworthiness of the borrowers, and the practices used to originate such loans.”

The FHFA filed a similar lawsuit in July against Swiss bank UBS AG, seeking to recoup more than $900 million in losses from mortgage-backed securities.

Also sued Friday were Ally Financial Inc., formerly known GMAC LLC, Deutsche Bank AG, First Horizon National Corp., General Electric Co., HSBC North America Holdings Inc., Morgan Stanley, Nomura Holding America Inc., and Societe Generale.

JPMorgan, Goldman, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley declined to comment on the lawsuits. Ally Financial said in a statement said the government’s “claims are meritless, and the company intends to defend its position aggressively.” A spokeswoman for First Horizon said the bank intends to “vigorously defend” itself.

Ken Thomas, a Miami-based banking consultant and economist, said he expects the banks to settle soon with the government.

“This will be nothing but a distraction to them and the quicker you settle something like this the better,” he said.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press, Eileen A.J. Connelly, AP Business Writers; Pallavi Gogoi, AP Business Writers. Christina Rexrode contributed to this report.

* This information is meant to be helpful and for informational purposes ONLY*

Meyling Calero
Easy Home Realty
Lic. Real Estate Sales Associate
Short Sale Specialist
MeylingCalero@aol.com
(305)771-5154
www.MeylingRealEstate.com
2011 Women's Council of Realtors VP of Membership
2010 Women's Council of Realtors Secretary
2009 Women's Council of Realtors Treasurer
2008 Women's Council of Realtors Ways and Means Chair

For more information on your Real Estate needs or concerns, contact Meyling at MeylingCalero@aol.com or Visit www.MeylingRealEstate.com

1 Million Foreclosures Delayed Until 2012

2011-08-29T19:36:00.000-07:00

An estimated 1 million foreclosure-related notices for defaults, auctions, and home repossessions that should be filed by lenders this year will be pushed back until next year, according to the latest report by RealtyTrac.

While the delays could give home owners more time to catch up on their payments and try to avoid foreclosure, housing experts warn this means the looming shadow inventory of distressed properties likely will continue to plague the real estate market even longer.

"The best-case scenario is we don't get back to normal levels of foreclosure activity until 2015, which means the housing market recovery gets delayed by at least a year," says Rick Sharga, a senior vice president at RealtyTrac.

Foreclosure Notices Drop, Threat Still Looms
Overall, the number of homes repossessed by lenders in the first half of this year dropped 30 percent compared to the same period in 2010. But foreclosure processing delays — with lenders taking longer to take action against delinquent borrowers — is stalling the housing recovery, experts note.

About 1.2 million homes received a foreclosure-related notice in the first six months of this year — in other words, one in every 111 U.S. households, RealtyTrac reports.

Nevada continues to face the most foreclosures; one in every 21 households in that state received a foreclosure notice in the first half of the year.

The foreclosure process continues to lengthen too. From April and June, homes took 318 days on average to go from the first stage of foreclosure to ultimately where it was repossessed by the lender — that’s up from 298 days in the first three months of the year. (In New York, the foreclosure process took the longest at an average of 966 days or 2.6 years; Texas boasted the shortest at 92 days.)

Source: “Delays in Bank Processing Push Likely U.S. Foreclosures Until 2012, Stalling Recovery,” Associated Press (July 14, 2011)

* This information is meant to be helpful and for informational purposes ONLY*
Meyling Calero
Easy Home Realty
REALTOR Associate
Short Sale Specialist
MeylingCalero@aol.com
(305)771-5154
www.MeylingRealEstate.com
2011 Women's Council of Realtors VP of Membership
2010 Women's Council of Realtors Secretary
2009 Women's Council of Realtors Treasurer
2008 Women's Council of Realtors Ways and Means Chair

For more information on your Real Estate needs or concerns, contact Meyling at MeylingCalero@aol.com or Visit www.MeylingRealEstate.com

Number of short sales on the rise

2011-08-29T19:10:00.000-07:00

Number of short sales on the rise SEATTLE – Aug. 29, 2011 – Short sales are increasing as a percentage of home sales in many states, helping some neighborhoods and homeowners avoid the more devastating impacts of foreclosures.

Short sales – when lenders allow financially strapped borrowers to sell homes for less than their unpaid mortgage – accounted for 12 percent of home sales nationwide in the second quarter. That’s up from 10 percent in the same period last year, says researcher RealtyTrac.

The increases were sharper in some states, including California, Nevada, Michigan, Georgia and Colorado, the data show.

In Colorado, short sales were 17 percent of all sales in the second quarter, up from 10 percent a year earlier. In California, they made up 25 percent of sales, vs. 18 percent.

Bank of America, the largest home mortgage servicer, expects to complete more than 100,000 short sales this year – more than double what it did in 2009, the bank says.

Wells Fargo Senior Vice President J.K. Huey says short sales have been “steady to slightly” up in recent months, partly because there are fewer bank-owned houses for sale in some markets, and that has forced buyers to pursue more short-sale properties.

Short-sale homes, which often remain occupied until sold, tend to retain values better than those that go through foreclosure. That helps values of neighboring homes.

In the second quarter, short-sale homes sold at a 21 percent discount to non-foreclosure homes, while bank-owned homes went at a 40 percent discount, RealtyTrac says. Short sales may also reduce losses for loan owners because they avoid full foreclosure costs. Borrowers may qualify for new mortgages sooner after a short sale than after a foreclosure.

“Short sales are a very positive solution,” says BofA Vice President Dave Sunlin.

Short sales peaked at 16 percent of the market in early 2009, RealtyTrac says. Realtors say there should be more short sales and that they should get done faster.

“We lose buyers constantly because short sales take too long,” says Beth Peerce, president of the California Association of Realtors. Short sales completed in the second quarter took 245 days, on average, RealtyTrac says. In a June survey, 77 percent of California Realtors called short sales difficult or extremely difficult; 15 percent said clients were foreclosed on while pursuing short sales.

Many short-sale efforts fail because homeowners aren’t eligible because they can still make payments, or purchase offers are too low, says Wells Fargo’s Huey. Loan owners may not agree on sale prices, either, she says. In most states, lenders can try to recoup short-sale losses from homeowners unless balances are forgiven. At BofA, Sunlin says balances are forgiven more than half the time.

© Copyright 2011 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc., Julie Schmit
* This information is meant to be helpful and for informational purposes ONLY*
Meyling Calero
Easy Home Realty Group.
REALTOR Associate
Short Sale Specialist
MeylingCalero@aol.com
305)771-5154
www.MeylingRealEstate.com
2011 Women's Council of Realtors VP of Membership
2010 Women's Council of Realtors Secretary
2009 Women's Council of Realtors Treasurer
2008 Women's Council of Realtors Ways and Means Chair

For more information on your Real Estate needs or concerns, contact Meyling at MeylingCalero@aol.com or Visit www.MeylingRealEstate.com

Florida foreclosure sales down 22 percent

2011-08-25T19:18:00.000-07:00

Florida foreclosure sales down 22 percent

August 25, 2011 12:01AM By Alexander Britell

Foreclosures sales in Florida dropped 22.4 percent in the second quarter of the year compared to the same period in 2010, according to a report from foreclosure real estate listings database RealtyTrac released today.

There were a total of 34,558 foreclosure sales in Florida in the second quarter, the second-highest number per state in the U.S., with an average sales price of $114,894.

Nationally, foreclosure sales fell 11 percent from the second quarter of 2010, although they saw a 6.48 percent increase from the first quarter of 2011.

What stood out in Florida, a state that has seen a drastic reduction in foreclosure activity since the beginning of the robo-signing scandal, was a greater percentage of short sales, according to Daren Blomquist, RealtyTrac's spokesperson.

"There are almost as many pre-foreclosure sales as there are real estate-owned sales [in the second-quarter data]," he said. "Usually, the balance had been that there had been quite a few more REO sales."

Blomquist said lenders were apparently more willing to deal with pre-foreclosure sales -- and even take losses up front on the properties -- because dealing with maintaining the properties throughout foreclosure, and then taking possession of them, was becoming much less attractive.

The problem of banks holding on to foreclosed properties, especially condominium units, has led owners to look to new legal tactics like mortgage termination to force banks to either move ahead with foreclosures or forfeit their rights over the properties.

Foreclosure sales in Florida closed at an average discount of 33.4 percent off of the sales price of the average non-distressed sale in the state last quarter.

An ongoing question for foreclosure observers has been when the activity will increase -- and Blomquist said a national uptick in sales of 6.48 percent from the first quarter could signal a renewed effort by banks to bring foreclosures through the process.

"The fact that more of these properties are selling [nationally] may give lenders and servicers more confidence -- and it clears the pipelines," he said. "It wasn't a huge increase, but the more [lenders] sell, the more room they have to take on new foreclosures."

* This information is meant to be helpful and for informational purposes ONLY*
Meyling Calero RMG Realty Group Inc.
Lic. Real Estate Sales Associate
Short Sale Specialist
MeylingCalero@aol.com
(305)771-5154
www.MeylingRealEstate.com
2011 Women's Council of Realtors VP of Membership
2010 Women's Council of Realtors Secretary
2009 Women's Council of Realtors Treasurer
2008 Women's Council of Realtors Ways and Means Chair

For more information on your Real Estate needs or concerns, contact Meyling at MeylingCalero@aol.com or Visit www.MeylingRealEstate.com

More Americans at risk of foreclosure in Q2

2011-08-23T19:21:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON – Aug. 23, 2011 – The number of Americans at risk of foreclosure is rising, reflecting the U.S. economy’s continued struggles.

The Mortgage Bankers Association said Monday that 8.44 percent of homeowners missed at least one mortgage payment in the April-June quarter. That figure, which is adjusted for seasonal factors, rose 0.12 percentage point from the January-March period.

In a normal market, the percentage of delinquent borrowers is about 1.1 percent, according to the trade group.

Delinquent mortgages have plummeted from a record high of more than 10 percent of residential mortgages a year ago. But the decline is due partly to delays in foreclosure filings that are backlogged in several state courts, including Florida, New Jersey, Illinois and New York.

The end of a state and federal investigation into faulty foreclosure paperwork will likely lead to increased foreclosures later this year.

Analysts say the increase is especially worrisome because it’s due mainly to high unemployment, which tends to raise the number of missed payments and foreclosures over time. And once delayed foreclosures are re-started, the economy could suffer a hit.

“The current processing delays mean this will not happen quickly, underlining our view that both the housing market and the economy will remain weak for a few years,” said Paul Dales, senior U.S. economist at Capital Economics.

The quarterly survey covers nearly 88 percent of primary residential mortgages totaling nearly 44 million loans.
Copyright © 2011 The Associated Press, Derek Kravitz, AP economics writer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

* This information is meant to be helpful and for informational purposes ONLY*
Meyling Calero
Easy Home Realty.
REALTOR Associate
Short Sale Specialist
MeylingCalero@aol.com
(305)771-5154
www.MeylingRealEstate.com
2011 Women's Council of Realtors VP of Membership
2010 Women's Council of Realtors Secretary
2009 Women's Council of Realtors Treasurer
2008 Women's Council of Realtors Ways and Means Chair

For more information on your Real Estate needs or concerns, contact Meyling at MeylingCalero@aol.com or Visit www.MeylingRealEstate.com

Buying is cheaper than renting in most U.S. cities

2011-08-17T04:53:00.000-07:00

By Les Christie August 16, 2011: 6:07 AM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Home prices have taken such a beating and demand for rental units has increased so much that it's now cheaper to buy a two-bedroom home than to rent one in most major U.S. cities.

According to real estate web site Trulia, buying was cheaper than renting in 74% of the country's 50 largest cities in July. In just 12% of the cities, including New York, Seattle and San Francisco, renting was cheaper. In the remaining 14% of cities, renting was less expensive but close to the cost of buying.

In addition to a continuing decline in home prices, rock-bottom interest rates have added a lot of weight to the buy side of the scale. The overnight average rate for a 30-year fixed was just 4.19% on Monday, according to Bankrate.com. A 15-year fixed averaged just 3.43%.

Add in the tax perks of home ownership and for those who can afford it (and who can actually qualify for a loan), it certainly is a buyer's market.

"It's a personal decision, of course. But if you have a steady job and you are planning to stay for seven years or more and have enough cash to put 20% down and enough left over for seven or eight months of expenses, you're better off buying in most places," said Daisy Kong, a spokeswoman for Trulia.
Top buyer's markets

Las Vegas offered the most compelling buy-side math, Trulia's survey found.

Prices there have plunged more than 59% from their August 2006 peak, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index.

The median price of a two-bedroom, two-bath condo or townhouse is about $60,000, according to Trulia, a ratio of only six times the median annual rent of a similar rental apartment, which is $9,700.

Monthly mortgage payments on a median-priced Vegas condo would come to only $256 on a 30-year, 5% interest loan. Even factoring in property taxes and common charges of roughly $300 a month, the monthly amount is still much lower than the $810 in monthly rent they would pay on a similar place.

Detroit, according to Trulia, is another metro area where buying is better. The median price for a condo or townhouse is about seven times annual rent. Home prices in Mesa, Ariz. and Fresno, Calif. also clock in at seven times rent.

Arlington, Texas, Sacramento, Calif., Phoenix and Jacksonville, Fla. all had buy-rent ratios of eight, Trulia said.

Top renter's markets

Even though rents average $2,980 a month in New York (the highest of any of the 50 markets), it's still the best city for renters, according to Trulia's survey.

Paying for the same kind of two-bedroom Manhattan apartment would cost 36 times as much, nearly $1.3 million.

Big money towns

One surprising place where renting is cheaper is Ft. Worth, Texas; buying exceeds renting costs by 32 times. Part of the reason is there are relatively few condos in the city and they tend to be upscale and costly. That, combined with low rents of about $9,500 a year, make renting cheaper.

Omaha, Neb., where buying is 27 times annual rents, Seattle and San Francisco, which both clock in with purchase prices that are 24 times rents, and Kansas City, at 22 times rents, are other places where renting makes financial sense.

Should you rent or buy?

The buy-rent calculation is just one part of the decision-making process. Other factors include:

How long you plan to stay. If you're not keeping the home for several years, transactional costs of buying and selling (e.g; commissions, closing costs) can wipe out any buying edge.

Whether you have cash for closing. It's not easy to find banks willing to lend more than 80% of the cost of a home. That means buyers have to come up with 20% down, plus closing costs. On a $200,000 home, that's $40,000.

Whether you can cover all the homeownership costs. It's not just the mortgage: There are property taxes, insurance, heat, utilities and regular maintenance.

Whether you can claim the tax advantages of homeownership. Mortgage interest is deductible and can shave a lot off tax bills but this benefit accrues mostly to high income earners with substantial mortgage payments. Many borrowers claim the standard deduction on their taxes and so derive no savings from the deduction.

Even where it's cheaper to rent, it doesn't necessarily mean renters will come out ahead, according to Ken Johnson, a real estate professor at Florida International University and co-author of a new study on whether it's better to buy or rent.

"Paying off a mortgage is a kind of forced savings," he said. Each check homeowners write lowers the balance they owe and increases the value of their property holdings. That, unlike cash in a bank account, is not easy to tap.

Where the jobs are

Homeowners have to go through a lengthy and costly process to access it by taking out a home equity loan or a cash-out refinance -- actions they tend not to take unless there's a specific need.

Depending on where they live, renters may save on monthly expenses but, unlike the forced savings of mortgage payments, they won't have anything to show for their monthly payments in the way of savings.

Ultimately, however, the decision whether to buy or rent depends on each person's situation and their plans for the future.

While buying a home may be an attractively cheap option these days, many mortgage holders have found out the hard way that the joys of homeownership can turn sour should the unexpected strike. To top of page

* This information is meant to be helpful and for informational purposes ONLY*
Meyling Calero
Easy Home Realty.
REALTOR Associate
Short Sale Specialist
MeylingCalero@aol.com
(305)771-5154
www.MeylingRealEstate.com
2011 Women's Council of Realtors VP of Membership
2010 Women's Council of Realtors Secretary
2009 Women's Council of Realtors Treasurer
2008 Women's Council of Realtors Ways and Means Chair

For more information on your Real Estate needs or concerns, contact Meyling at MeylingCalero@aol.com or Visit www.MeylingRealEstate.com

Did you know: Takeing the easy way out is not so easy at the end

2011-08-16T04:46:00.000-07:00

Many distressed homeowners often get frustrated and take what they think is the “Easy way out” by letting the property go into foreclosure. Well that is NOT the easy way out. Letting your property go in to foreclosure has major consequences in the future.

Here is a list of things that happen once a foreclosure sale has happened:

1. 1. The Bank will report to the credit bureau the sellers in ability to pay. A credit score can drop up to 280 points just with the foreclosure. That does not include all the late payments already reported = / OUCH ….

2. The bank will assign an asset manager to the case for property preservation and has the property then listed for sale.

3. 2. The bank will than hire a REALTOR to market the property to potential buyers. Once a buyer’s offer is accepted the bank will start processing a settlement transaction and later close the deal.

4. 3. NOW here is the worst part of it all. Let’s say the seller’s mortgage balance was $300K and the bank sold the property for $100K, there is a difference of $200K loss the bank has taken. What do you think is going to happen with that $200K? Well since the seller decided to “Take the easy way out” the bank will now file a “DEFICIENCY JUDGMENT “against the seller on court public records for the $200K difference. Once any judgment / lien is recorded under a persons name on county records, that judgment / lien attached to them and to any other property they own… DOUBLE THE OUCH. Judgment lines can last up to 20 years on public records.. (every county is different)

This means that if the seller owns any other properties or decided to buy another property in the future, this " judgment" will automatically attach itself to the property / properties therefore, the seller will not only have a mortgage on records but also judgment. If they seller decided to sell or refinance the property, they would have to payoff this "judgment" in order to do so.. this is Title 101!!!

So what is the solution??? A short sale!!!! Why?

Here are a few top reasons

1. 1. A short sale is the actual sale of the home between the seller and the buyer, The bank Is willing to negotiated a discounted payoff. The seller themselves are making an effort to solve this issue , not “TAKE THE EASY WAY OUT” Big difference

2. 2.The bank will Release the mortgage from the seller (records on public records a Satisfaction of Mortgage”.

3. 3. The bank will waive the remaining balance (the difference from what is owed to what the property was sold at) this is a biggie and not the case with a foreclosure.

4. If the property is a primary / homestead residence the 1099 will be waived and the seller may be eligible for $3000K relocation costs from the bank.

If you know or hear of anyone who is thinking of “taking the easy way out” stop them and provide this information. Should you have any further questions or concerns please feel free to contact me. I am here to help sellers process their short sale transaction.

* This information is meant to be helpful and for informational purposes ONLY*

Meyling Calero
Easy Home Realty
Lic. Real Estate Sales Associate
Short Sale Specialist MeylingCalero@aol.com
(305)771-5154
www.MeylingRealEstate.com
2011 Women's Council of Realtors VP of Membership
2010 Women's Council of Realtors Secretary
2009 Women's Council of Realtors Treasurer
2008 Women's Council of Realtors Ways and Means Chair

For more information on your Real Estate needs or concerns, contact Meyling at MeylingCalero@aol.com or Visit www.MeylingRealEstate.com

Experts Agree Prices Have Bottomed Out and Will Stay There

2011-08-15T05:13:00.000-07:00

Despite persistent macroeconomic uncertainty and unprecedented housing market dysfunction, almost two-thirds of the panelists see the U.S. residential real estate market as at an historic turning point, says Robert Shiller, MacroMarkets co-founder and chief economist.

However, expectations for the pace of recovery fell. The group of 69 panelists who are currently forecasting a 2011 turning point predict less than two percent average annual growth in nominal home prices over the five-year period ending December 2015. The average expected cumulative home price change between Q4 2010 and Q4 2015 is just 5.71 percent, $1.2 trillion less in aggregate U.S. single-family housing wealth at the end of 2015 than projected just six months ago.

Terry Loebs, MacroMarkets managing director, confirmed that a wide variety of individual views continue to be expressed by the panel. Loebs says, “Looking at expected housing market performance through the five year period ending 2015, the most optimistic quartile of panelists projects 15.3 percent average price growth, while the most pessimistic quartile of panelists projects 6.0 price average price erosion from Q4 2010 levels. This spread is huge, representing almost $4 trillion in housing market value. This is a gut wrenching time for market stakeholders and policymakers, because each of these scenarios is plausible.”

For more information please visit www.realestateeconomywatch.com.

* This information is meant to be helpful and for informational purposes ONLY*
Meyling Calero
Easy Home Realty
REALTOR Associate
Short Sale Specialist
MeylingCalero@aol.com
(305)771-5154
www.MeylingRealEstate.com
2011 Women's Council of Realtors VP of Membership
2010 Women's Council of Realtors Secretary
2009 Women's Council of Realtors Treasurer
2008 Women's Council of Realtors Ways and Means Chair

For more information on your Real Estate needs or concerns, contact Meyling at MeylingCalero@aol.com or Visit www.MeylingRealEstate.com

Mortgage paperwork mess: Next housing shock?

2011-08-08T18:59:00.000-07:00

(CBS News) This story was first published April 3, 2011. It was updated on August 2, 2011.

Home prices have been falling for months, sending us into a second housing shock. Home values are almost down to what they were back in 2002. A key factor bringing down prices - and holding back the recovery - is the huge number of foreclosed houses.

Many of them are stuck on the market for a reason that you wouldn't expect: banks can't find the ownership documents. It's bizarre, but it turns out that Wall Street cut corners when it created those mortgage-backed investments that triggered the financial collapse.

As we reported earlier this year, now that banks want to evict people, they're discovering that often the legal documents behind the mortgages simply aren't there. Caught in a jam of their own making, some companies appear to be resorting to forgery and phony paperwork to throw people, down on their luck, out of their homes.

In the 1930s we had breadlines; venture out before dawn in America today and you'll find mortgage lines. This past January in Los Angeles, 37,000 homeowners facing foreclosure showed up to an event to beg their bank for lower payments on their mortgage. Some people even slept on the sidewalk to get in line.
So many in the country are desperate now that they have to meet in convention centers coast to coast.
In February in Miami, 12,000 people showed up to a similar event. The line went down the block and doubled back twice.
Extra: Eviction reprieve
Extra: "Save the Dream" events

Dale DeFreitas lost her job and now fears her home is next. "It's very emotional because I just think about it. I don't wanna lose my home. I really don't," she told "60 Minutes" correspondent Scott Pelley.
"It's your American dream," he remarked."It was. And still is," she replied.

These convention center events are put on by the non-profit Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America, which helps people figure what they can afford, and then walks them across the hall to bank representatives to ask for lower payments. More than half will get their mortgages adjusted, but the rest discover that they just can't keep their home.

For many that's when the real surprise comes in: these same banks have fouled up all of their own paperwork to a historic degree."In my mind this is an absolute, intentional fraud," Lynn Szymoniak, who is fighting foreclosure, told Pelley.While trying to save her house, she discovered something we did not know: back when Wall Street was using algorithms and computers to engineer those disastrous mortgage-backed securities, it appears they didn't want old fashioned paperwork slowing down the profits.

"This was back when it was a white hot fevered pitch to move as many of these as possible," Pelley remarked."Exactly. When you could make a whole lotta money through securitization. And every other aspect of it could be done electronically, you know, key strokes. This was the only piece where somebody was supposed to actually go get documents, transfer the documents from one entity to the other. And it looks very much like they just eliminated that stuff all together," Szymoniak said.

Szymoniak's mortgage had been bundled with thousands of others into one of those Wall Street securities traded from investor to investor. When the bank took her to court, it first said it had lost her documents, including the critical assignment of mortgage which transfers ownership. But then, there was a courthouse surprise.

"They found all of your paperwork more than a year after they initially said that they had lost it?" Pelley asked.

"Yes," she replied.

Asked if that seemed suspicious to her, Szymoniak said, "Yes, absolutely. What do you imagine? It fell behind the file cabinet? Where was all of this? 'We had it, we own it, we lost it.' And then more recently, everyone is coming in saying, 'Hey we found it. Isn't that wonderful?'"

But what the bank may not have known is that Szymoniak is a lawyer and fraud investigator with a specialty in forged documents. She has trained FBI agents.She told Pelley she asked for copies of those documents.
Asked what she found, Szymoniak told Pelley,

"When I looked at the assignment of my mortgage, and this is the assignment: it looked that even the date they put in, which was 10/17/08, was several months after they sued me for foreclosure.

So, what they were saying to the court was, 'We sued her in July of 2008 and we acquired this mortgage in October of 2008.' It made absolutely no sense."

Produced by Robert Anderson and Daniel Ruetenik
* This information is meant to be helpful and for informational purposes ONLY*
Meyling Calero
Easy Home Realty
REALTOR Associate
Short Sale Specialist
MeylingCalero@aol.com
(305)771-5154
www.MeylingRealEstate.com
2011 Women's Council of Realtors VP of Membership
2010 Women's Council of Realtors Secretary
2009 Women's Council of Realtors Treasurer
2008 Women's Council of Realtors Ways and Means Chair For more information on your Real Estate needs or concerns, contact Meyling at MeylingCalero@aol.com or Visit www.MeylingRealEstate.com

Summer real estate market cools off

2011-08-05T04:46:00.000-07:00

Altos: Rising inventory, short-term price trends mark shift
By Inman News, Thursday, August 4, 2011.

The seasonal price bump many markets experienced in the spring appears to have cooled off, according to a report from real estate data firm Altos Research.

Last week, the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller National Home Price Index for May showed that 16 out of the 20 markets tracked saw monthly price increases, with the 20-city composite up 1 percent. On an annual basis, however, only Washington, D.C., saw a gain, up 1.3 percent, and the 20-city composite was down 4.5 percent.

An index released today by data and valuation firm Clear Capital rose 4.1 percent from April-July this year compared to January-March. The company's index uses data based on rolling quarters, comparing the last four-month period to the previous three-month period.
* This information is meant to be helpful and for informational purposes ONLY*
Meyling Calero
RMG Realty Group Inc.
Lic. Real Estate Sales Associate
Short Sale Specialist
MeylingCalero@aol.com
(305)771-5154
www.MeylingRealEstate.com
2011 Women's Council of Realtors VP of Membership
2010 Women's Council of Realtors Secretary
2009 Women's Council of Realtors Treasurer
2008 Women's Council of Realtors Ways and Means Chair

For more information on your Real Estate needs or concerns, contact Meyling at MeylingCalero@aol.com or Visit www.MeylingRealEstate.com

REALTOR® Magazine-Daily News-1 Million Foreclosures Delayed Until 2012

2011-08-02T04:33:00.000-07:00

REALTOR® Magazine-Daily News-1 Million Foreclosures Delayed Until 2012

Daily Real Estate News | July 14, 2011

An estimated 1 million foreclosure-related notices for defaults, auctions, and home repossessions that should be filed by lenders this year will be pushed back until next year, according to the latest report by RealtyTrac.

While the delays could give home owners more time to catch up on their payments and try to avoid foreclosure, housing experts warn this means the looming shadow inventory of distressed properties likely will continue to plague the real estate market even longer.

"The best-case scenario is we don't get back to normal levels of foreclosure activity until 2015, which means the housing market recovery gets delayed by at least a year," says Rick Sharga, a senior vice president at RealtyTrac.

Foreclosure Notices Drop, Threat Still Looms
Overall, the number of homes repossessed by lenders in the first half of this year dropped 30 percent compared to the same period in 2010. But foreclosure processing delays — with lenders taking longer to take action against delinquent borrowers — is stalling the housing recovery, experts note.

About 1.2 million homes received a foreclosure-related notice in the first six months of this year — in other words, one in every 111 U.S. households, RealtyTrac reports.

Nevada continues to face the most foreclosures; one in every 21 households in that state received a foreclosure notice in the first half of the year.

The foreclosure process continues to lengthen too. From April and June, homes took 318 days on average to go from the first stage of foreclosure to ultimately where it was repossessed by the lender — that’s up from 298 days in the first three months of the year. (In New York, the foreclosure process took the longest at an average of 966 days or 2.6 years; Texas boasted the shortest at 92 days.)

Source: “Delays in Bank Processing Push Likely U.S. Foreclosures Until 2012, Stalling Recovery,” Associated Press (July 14, 2011)

* This information is meant to be helpful and for informational purposes ONLY*

Meyling Calero
Easy Home Realty
REALTOR Associate
Short Sale Specialist
MeylingCalero@aol.com
(305)771-5154
www.MeylingRealEstate.com

2011 Women's Council of Realtors VP of Membership
2010 Women's Council of Realtors Secretary
2009 Women's Council of Realtors Treasurer
2008 Women's Council of Realtors Ways and Means Chair

For more information on your Real Estate needs or concerns, contact Meyling at MeylingCalero@aol.com or Visit www.MeylingRealEstate.com

Is it the Right Time to Buy a Vacation Home?

2011-07-29T04:00:00.000-07:00

Housing prices are more affordable than ever and that's not just for a primary home. Today, the second-home luxury market is loaded with deals.Second-homes that once were out of the price range for many are now viable options, according to The Wall Street Journal.

That means that homes that once were $1,000,000+ are now being offered for significantly less. For instance, a Hilton Head Island property in South Carolina sold for $1.2 million back in June 2006. However, by April 2011, the same three-bedroom home sold for $750,000.

Full Story: http://realtytimes.com/rtpages/20110729_vacation.htm

* This information is meant to be helpful and for informational purposes ONLY*
Meyling Calero
Easy Home Realy
REALTOR Associate
Short Sale Specialist
MeylingCalero@aol.com
(305)771-5154
www.MeylingRealEstate.com
2011 Women's Council of Realtors VP of Membership
2010 Women's Council of Realtors Secretary
2009 Women's Council of Realtors Treasurer
2008 Women's Council of Realtors Ways and Means Chair

For more information on your Real Estate needs or concerns, contact Meyling at MeylingCalero@aol.com or Visit www.MeylingRealEstate.com

5 Questions to Ask Your Mortgage Professional

2011-07-26T05:11:00.001-07:00

By Tara-Nicholle Nelson | Broker in San Francisco, CA

Everyone knows you’re supposed to be proactive and assertive when you take out a mortgage, carefully collecting and evaluating all sorts of information before you make the biggest deal of your life. But when the mortgage broker starts shooting sheaves of papers (OK, PDF documents) at you, it’s easy for your eyes to glaze over at the sight of so many zeroes, and tempting just to start signing whatever it takes to get that house!
Here are 5 questions every smart buyer (or refi-er) should add to the list of issues to cover with your mortgage professional:

1.Are you a bank, a broker, or both? Generally speaking, mortgage lenders that are banks or have their own banking divisions (which many reputable brokerages do) have more control over the appraisal process, including the ability to submit your file to a pool of appraisers they know have some knowledge of your local neighborhood. Given the fact that non-local appraisers and the inability to communicate with appraisers under relatively new guidelines for brokerages are responsible for killing loads and loads of deals, working with a company that is or has a bank could be a deal-saving move, especially if the property is in an area that hasn’t had many recent sales or is otherwise challenging to appraise.

Also, some broker/banks that originate loans and sell them straight to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac under the FHA loan programs offer the same benefits of an FHA loan - low down payment and moderate qualification guidelines - without the “overlays” imposed by some larger banks, which actually place a more restrictive set of guidelines on FHA loan programs. For example, FHA guidelines do not impose a minimum credit score, but many banks overlay their own 640 minimum FICO requirement. Broker/banks that sell straight to Fannie and Freddie often mirror the FHA minimum guidelines precisely.
Finally, brokerages with their own in-house bank and a large roster of lenders and programs provide the advantage of offering a wider range of fallback options than plain old banks or plain old brokerages - Plans A, B, C and D, if you will - which many borrowers need these days, in the (increasingly common) case your first choice bank or loan program doesn’t work out.
2. Will you explain my Good Faith Estimate to me? May I also have a fee sheet or estimate of funds to close? The current, national standard Good Faith Estimate (GFE) is pretty clear, clarifying all sorts of deal points, from the broker’s commissions to the costs associated with the loan, but as a point of customer service, you should ask your mortgage pro to explain it to you (if they don’t do so under their own initiative).
The one shortfall of the the latest edition of the GFE is that, while it clearly shows the costs associated with a particular loan scenario, it does not always show so clearly the actual amount of funds you’ll need to close the transaction (which might be more or less than those costs)! So, ask your mortgage representative to prepare a fee sheet or an estimate of funds to close as early in the transaction as possible.
3.How long will it take to close my loan? How much time will I need for loan and appraisal contingencies? The time frames for closing your mortgage - which often drive the time frames for closing your home purchase - often vary widely depending on the type of loan and even the type of lender you work with.(Large bank loans originated by the bankers who sit inside the branch are notoriously slower to close, on average, than loans originated by brokers.) Similarly, the time it takes to get through the FHA loan appraisal and underwriting process might be much longer than it would take, all things being equal, to clear those hurdles and remove your loan and appraisal contingencies on a Conventional (i.e., non-FHA) mortgage.
When you first meet with your prospective mortgage pro, talk with them about these time frames, so they can help you set realistic expectations and insert realistic time frames into your offer when you make it, to minimize the drama of a contingency clock that ticks way faster than your mortgage process.
4. Are there any fees for the mortgage loan application/approval process? Some lenders charge for credit checks up front, and most require that you pay for your appraisal in advance (although the latter happens only after you find and get into contract on your property. One of the first questions you should ask, when you sit down with a new mortgage broker is how much cash you’ll have to come up with just for the privilege of having them run your application and take the first steps down the road to loan approval.
5. How long have you been originating loans? And how long have you been with your company? Mortgage pros who have been around for a long time have the knowledge of advance troubleshooting, workarounds and backup plans, and the current underwriting practices it takes to get a loan closed in this restrictive mortgage market. If you found them in some way other than a referral, you can even ask for references from a few clients. Most mortgage pros who have been in business for awhile will be able to give you names and numbers of clients they’ve worked with on multiple purchases and/or refis: that’s a very good sign. You’ll rest a lot easier if you know that your loan is in the hands of a seasoned pro who others like you trust with their largest asset - and largest financial obligation.
Article Source from and by : 5 Questions to Ask Your Mortgage Professional

Gov’t in talks to rent out foreclosures

2011-07-26T04:48:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON – July 25, 2011 – The Obama administration is considering a plan that would take foreclosed homes off the market and rent them out – in a move aimed at clearing the glut of unsold foreclosed homes and preventing home values from falling any more, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The talks come at a time when national rents are on the rise and home prices have been falling. By taking advantage of higher rents, lenders would be able to cover the costs of holding the properties until the homes can be resold after the market stabilizes – and maybe even make a profit on it later, experts note.

Nationally, sales of distressed homes, which are often sold at steep discounts, continue to pull down home values. Removing some of the high number of foreclosed homes for sale is “worth looking at,” Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said last week in testimony to Congress.

Just reducing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s foreclosed property sales from its current rate of 50,000 each month to 30,000 could lessen total distressed sales by one-third and help avoid a further 3 percent to 5 percent decline in home prices, analysts at Credit Suisse estimate.

However, turning foreclosed homes into rentals could place lenders and the government in an unknown role of playing landlord.

Another idea being tossed around, according to The Wall Street Journal: Federal officials selling thousands of foreclosed properties to private investors who would agree to rent them out, and who could then work with property management firms and handle the day-to-day tenant demands.

Source: “Uncle Sam Weighs Landlord Role to Ease Housing Slump,” The Wall Street Journal (July 22, 2011)

© Copyright 2011 INFORMATION, INC. Bethesda, MD (301) 215-4688

* This information is meant to be helpful and for informational purposes ONLY*
Meyling Calero
Easy Home Realty Inc.
REALTOR Associate
Short Sale Specialist
MeylingCalero@aol.com
(305)771-5154
www.MeylingRealEstate.com

2011 Women's Council of Realtors VP of Membership
2010 Women's Council of Realtors Secretary
2009 Women's Council of Realtors Treasurer
2008 Women's Council of Realtors Ways and Means Chair

For more information on your Real Estate needs or concerns, contact Meyling at MeylingCalero@aol.com or Visit www.MeylingRealEstate.com

FHA's new rules: more pain for condo market

2011-07-20T04:20:00.000-07:00

Calculated phasedown under way?

By Ken Harney, Tuesday, July 19, 2011.

Inman News™

Flickr image courtesy of rvaphotodude.

Is the Federal Housing Administration taking a back-door exit away from condos -- a key real estate segment in which it's recently built up market shares of 40 percent and higher in many urban areas?
Could the agency be tightening its rules in order to cut loan volume in the months ahead, potentially putting thousands of unit sellers, buyers, homeowners associations and realty agents in a mortgage-money squeeze?
FHA adamantly denies that it's doing anything of the sort, and insists that new rules rolled out at the end of last month represent prudent responses to the serious risks the agency's insurance funds confront.

But condo industry executives and community managers say FHA's tougher regulations have a wet-blanket effect on associations' ability -- and willingness -- to get their projects approved for financing by the agency. Without an entire project certified, potential buyers of units cannot obtain FHA-backed loans, which in turn makes it more difficult for current unit owners to sell and could depress property values.

* This information is meant to be helpful and for informational purposes ONLY*
Meyling Calero
RMG Realty Group Inc.
Lic. Real Estate Sales Associate
Short Sale Specialist
MeylingCalero@aol.com
(305)771-5154
www.MeylingRealEstate.com
2011 Women's Council of Realtors VP of Membership
2010 Women's Council of Realtors Secretary
2009 Women's Council of Realtors Treasurer
2008 Women's Council of Realtors Ways and Means Chair

For more information on your Real Estate needs or concerns, contact Meyling at MeylingCalero@aol.com or Visit www.MeylingRealEstate.com

Do Your Part: Know When It’s Time to Repair or Replace

2011-07-20T04:14:00.000-07:00

RISMEDIA, July 11, 2011—(MCT)— By Terri Bennett -
We never seem to realize our dependence on our appliances until one of them suddenly stops working. It could be that one day the microwave quits heating, or we catch on to the fact that our refrigerator isn’t quite keeping our foods cold enough, or in my case, a dishwasher that indicates the dishes are clean even though food is still stuck to them. Yes, there’s nothing appetizing about a dishwasher that’s not doing its job—especially with two kids at home. I dreaded the thought of going dishwasher shopping and shelling out money I hadn’t budgeted. However, it took me just a few minutes to find out that my dishwasher’s problem could be fixed for just a few dollars.

click to read the full article

* This information is meant to be helpful and for informational purposes ONLY*
Meyling Calero
RMG Realty Group Inc.
Lic. Real Estate Sales Associate
Short Sale Specialist
MeylingCalero@aol.com
(305)771-5154
www.MeylingRealEstate.com
2011 Women's Council of Realtors VP of Membership
2010 Women's Council of Realtors Secretary
2009 Women's Council of Realtors Treasurer
2008 Women's Council of Realtors Ways and Means Chair

For more information on your Real Estate needs or concerns, contact Meyling at MeylingCalero@aol.com or Visit www.MeylingRealEstate.com

Housing expected to improve over last year

2011-07-19T17:52:00.001-07:00

WASHINGTON – July 19, 2011 – The U.S. housing market, aided by a recovering rental sector, is unlikely to experience a “double-dip” setback, Freddie Mac said Monday.

In its U.S. Economic and Housing Market Outlook for July, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. said housing likely will follow the performance of the overall economy for the rest of 2011. Additionally, home sales are projected to be above last year’s numbers by 3- to 5 percent.

The report also indicated that despite record levels of homebuyer affordability and historically low mortgage rates, households were concerned about their financial futures and were holding off making major purchases, notably homes.

The rental housing market showed the clearest signs of a turnaround with the apartment property price index showing a 15.2 percent gain over the year through the first quarter of 2011.

“Following June’s labor market report, households are naturally concerned about their financial futures, which is being reflected in the housing market,” said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac’s vice president and chief economist. “Yet, the single-family market will likely improve over the balance of 2011, in keeping with positive [gross domestic product] forecasts for the United States.”

Copyright © 2011 United Press International Inc.

* This information is meant to be helpful and for informational purposes ONLY*
Meyling Calero
RMG Realty Group Inc.
Lic. Real Estate Sales Associate
Short Sale Specialist
MeylingCalero@aol.com
(305)771-5154
www.MeylingRealEstate.com
2011 Women's Council of Realtors VP of Membership
2010 Women's Council of Realtors Secretary
2009 Women's Council of Realtors Treasurer
2008 Women's Council of Realtors Ways and Means Chair

For more information on your Real Estate needs or concerns, contact Meyling at MeylingCalero@aol.com or Visit www.MeylingRealEstate.com

Free advice to help owners keep their homes

2011-07-19T06:25:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON – July 18, 2011 – Free counseling can help struggling homeowners try to find ways to keep their homes: The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) provides a list of government-approved counselors on its website, hud.gov.

The counselors often know of special programs that lenders don’t, said Kevin Maher, director of community education for the nonprofit Consumer Credit Management Services in Delray Beach, Fla.

His counseling agency was among those giving free help recently to hundreds who stood in line at a Help for Homeowners Community Event in Hollywood, Fla. The event brought out an overflowing crowd: 1,333 homeowners when organizers had only expected about 1,000.

Counselors know about HUD, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac programs, Maher said. They also keep up-to-date on what local agencies are offering.

If people are in foreclosure, the courts offer free mediation, added Diane Stephenson, foreclosure prevention services manager at Maher’s Consumer Credit agency. “It’s in the best interests of the people to take advantage of the mediation,” she said.

There are also programs to help the unemployed or underemployed, Maher said.

The Obama Administration has a new program, starting Aug. 1, that will give unemployed homeowners with FHA loans a break on part or all of their mortgage payments for up to 12 months.

To qualify, the unemployed will have to be 90-days delinquent on their loans, said Brian Sullivan, a U.S. Housing and Urban Development spokesman.

Those mortgage companies participating in the Making Home Affordable Program will also be required to give the year-long reprieve “whenever possible,” according to a HUD statement.

© 2011 Sun Sentinel. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune News Service, Donna Gehrke-White.

* This information is meant to be helpful and for informational purposes ONLY*
Meyling Calero Easy Home Realty
Lic. Real Estate Sales Associate
Short Sale Specialist
MeylingCalero@aol.com
(305)771-5154
www.MeylingRealEstate.com
2011 Women's Council of Realtors VP of Membership
2010 Women's Council of Realtors Secretary
2009 Women's Council of Realtors Treasurer
2008 Women's Council of Realtors Ways and Means Chair

For more information on your Real Estate needs or concerns, contact Meyling at MeylingCalero@aol.com or Visit www.MeylingRealEstate.com

Realty Times - Collecting Rent and Not Paying the Mortgage

2011-07-19T04:00:00.000-07:00

Collecting Rent and Not Paying the Mortgage
by Bob Hunt

Not long ago (June 11) Ariel Kaminer, 'The Ethicist' at the New York Times, responded to a query from a tenant whose landlord was not making his mortgage payments. The letter writer wondered if it would be unethical for him, the tenant, to withhold his rent. What the landlord was doing is commonly called 'rent skimming.' It is a practice that more than a few people consider to be immoral, and many would agree with the tenant's inclination: that the landlord's unethical behavior would absolve the tenant of any ethical obligation to make rental payments to him.

The situation can be framed as a legal question or as a question of ethics. Treated as a legal issue, the matter is pretty straightforward. In California at least. (Imagine: something being straightforward in California!) California law (Civil Code 890) defines rent skimming in two ways: (1) It is the act of collecting rent(s) and failing to make mortgage payments, during the first year of ownership; or (2) it is the act of collecting rents under the guise of authority (e.g. pretending to be the owner or property manager) and then not turning the money over to the rightful owner."

Click here for the full article : Realty Times - Collecting Rent and Not Paying the Mortgage:

When to buy real estate above list price | Inman News

2011-07-18T05:16:00.000-07:00

When to buy real estate above list price Inman News:
When to buy real estate above list price
Consider whether it's a 'forever' house
By Dian Hymer, Monday, July 11, 2011.

Inman News™

Home sales in most of the country are mired in a market best characterized as sluggish, bordering on comatose. Although there are some positive indicators, like low interest rates and a gradually improving economy, the housing market is still struggling to recover. Even so, there are occasionally multiple offers even in slow markets. This occurs when a prime listing comes on the market that has features most buyers want; it's in a good location; it's in good condition; and it's priced at or under market price.

If a competitive listing is priced below market value to stimulate activity and a quick sale, paying over the price probably makes sense if you're not paying over current market value. In some cases, however, a listing in a prime location will attract many offers ending up with a sale price that can't be justified by recent sale activity in the area.

This happened frequently in 2005 and 2006 when appreciation was running rampant in many areas. Home prices were rising so quickly that recent sales were out of date in terms of price. In most cases today, this is not the case, which raises the question: Are flurries of multiple offers on some properties in some markets creating bubble pricing?"

Click to read the full article

Have questions or concerns regarding short sales? Feel free to email me for a FREE consultation Meylingcalero@aol.com

The Real Deal | South Florida Real Estate News

2011-07-13T04:24:00.001-07:00

Single women comprise 1/5 of homebuyers

July 12, 2011 01:30PM

Real estate brokers across the country accustomed to touting a home's family-friendliness may need to pick up some new tricks. According to MSNBC, 32 percent of homebuyers are single, and 20 percent of all homebuyers are single women. Taking advantage of low interest rates and slowly loosening lending standards, single women are buying to relocate closer to a job or family, to get more space, or because they have "a strong desire to nest," the Joint Center for Housing Studies said. Jan Gray, a Northern California real estate agent, said women are among her savviest clients. "When women shop for a home with a man, I always see them deferring to him: his need for a garage, or a work space, or a man cave," she said. "When women buy for themselves, they are excited about turning this place into something that reflects them and who they are -- they know they could even paint the bathroom pink if they wanted to!" [MSNBC]
Tags: homebuyers jan gray single women

The Real Deal | South Florida Real Estate News

Realty Times - Are You Ready to Buy?

2011-07-13T04:18:00.001-07:00

by Carla Hill

Making the move from renter to homeowner can be a big step. While homeownership comes with a lot of perks, it's also a huge financial responsibility. How do you know if you're ready to buy?

Are you ready for a more stable home? Rental rates vary year to year, and as a renter you are at the mercy of your apartment's management. Are they good at addressing problems, or are you left with a dwelling full of needed repairs.

Owning a home with a fixed-rate mortgage, the form of mortgage our experts recommend, means you know exactly what your monthly payment will be for the life of the loan. When a problem arises, you have the ability to fix it without having to jump through red management tape.

Stability goes further than just a fixed monthly payment. Studies have shown that owning a home brings stability to both your family (higher graduation rates, lower crime rates) and your community (more civic involvement). And you can't put a price on the privacy and space a home affords you. Single-family detached homes generally comes with yards and bigger square footage than apartments.

Now that you've thought about the dynamics of homeownership, it's time to consider the financial logistics. Does buying a home make financial sense right now? This answer depends on a few important factors.

Click here to read the full article by Realty Times.com Realty Times - Are You Ready to Buy?

FHA is Still Greatly Needed

2011-07-12T04:55:00.000-07:00

by Bob Hunt RealtyTimes.com

This week (July 11) hundreds of Realtors® are flying in to Washington, D.C. to engage in a "full court press" lobbying effort on behalf of the National Association of Realtors®’ (NAR) legislative agenda.

These concerns include: preservation of the mortgage interest deduction, extension of the national flood insurance program, reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and preservation of the current maximum loan limits for Fannie, Freddie, and FHA.

The argument for maintaining the FHA maximum loan levels is especially compelling. To press it, however, the Realtors® will need to counter positions that have been taken by those who advocate shrinking FHA’s role in the real estate financing arena. There are three areas of contention: 1. The proper role of FHA; 2. The potential impact of scaling back FHA’s ability to lend; and 3. The risk level of FHA loans. We consider each of these.

Click here for the Full article

* This information is meant to be helpful and for informational purposes ONLY*
Meyling Calero
RMG Realty Group Inc.
Lic. Real Estate Sales Associate
Short Sale Specialist
MeylingCalero@aol.com
305)771-5154
www.MeylingRealEstate.com
2011 Women's Council of Realtors VP of Membership
2010 Women's Council of Realtors Secretary
2009 Women's Council of Realtors Treasurer
2008 Women's Council of Realtors Ways and Means Chair

For more information on your Real Estate needs or concerns, contact Meyling at MeylingCalero@aol.com or Visit www.MeylingRealEstate.com

Gallup: Time is Right to Buy

2011-07-11T20:05:00.000-07:00

Consumer attitudes towards the housing markets are echoing views in the years immediately preceding the peak of the housing boom, according to a new national survey by the Gallup poll.

Americans continue to see a buyer’s market in housing, according to an April 2011 Gallup poll. Sixty-nine percent of respondents say now is a good time to buy a house.

Historic Gallup data shows that many Americans also thought it was a good time to buy between 2003 and 2005, when housing prices were increasing and getting financing was relatively easy. Those attitudes began to change in 2006 as some homebuyers began to realize a housing bubble was taking shape in local markets across the country.

Men (74 percent) are about 16 percent more likely to see now as a good time to buy a home than are women (64 percent). Those living in the West are the most likely to hold this view (75 percent), 17 percent more than those living in the South (64 percent). Americans making $75,000 or more a year (86 percent) are 18 percent more likely to see 2011 as a good time to buy a home than those making $30,000 - $75,000 (73 percent), and 72 percent more likely than those making less than $30,000 (50 percent).

Americans’ expectations for home prices in their local markets are slightly better now than they were in January. Currently, 30 percent of Americans say home prices will increase and 28 percent say they will decrease in the next year.

This is also better than the situation in 2008 and 2009, but a far cry from housing price expectations in prior years, when the majority expected prices to rise. For example, in 2005, 70 percent expected their home price to grow and only 5 percent thought it would fall.

Article by: Steve Cook Real Estate Economy Watch

* This information is meant to be helpful and for informational purposes ONLY*
Meyling Calero
RMG Realty Group Inc.
Lic. Real Estate Sales Associate
Short Sale Specialist
MeylingCalero@aol.com
(305)771-5154
www.MeylingRealEstate.com
2011 Women's Council of Realtors VP of Membership
2010 Women's Council of Realtors Secretary
2009 Women's Council of Realtors Treasurer
2008 Women's Council of Realtors Ways and Means Chair

For more information on your Real Estate needs or concerns, contact Meyling at MeylingCalero@aol.com or Visit www.MeylingRealEstate.com

Experts Agree Prices Have Bottomed Out and Will Stay There

2011-07-11T05:34:00.000-07:00

Submitted by Deborah Boza-Va... on 28 June 2011 - 2:04am Market ForecastsRISMEDIA, June 28, 2011— By Steve Cook -

A significant majority of the 108 economists and experts participating in MacroMarkets’ June Price Home Expectations panelists believe that the bottom for home prices arrived in the first quarter or will arrive sometime before year-end.

Despite persistent macroeconomic uncertainty and unprecedented housing market dysfunction, almost two-thirds of the panelists see the U.S. residential real estate market as at an historic turning point, says Robert Shiller, MacroMarkets co-founder and chief economist.

However, expectations for the pace of recovery fell. The group of 69 panelists who are currently forecasting a 2011 turning point predict less than two percent average annual growth in nominal home prices over the five-year period ending December 2015. The average expected cumulative home price change between Q4 2010 and Q4 2015 is just 5.71 percent, $1.2 trillion less in aggregate U.S. single-family housing wealth at the end of 2015 than projected just six months ago.

Terry Loebs, MacroMarkets managing director, confirmed that a wide variety of individual views continue to be expressed by the panel. Loebs says, “Looking at expected housing market performance through the five year period ending 2015, the most optimistic quartile of panelists projects 15.3 percent average price growth, while the most pessimistic quartile of panelists projects 6.0 price average price erosion from Q4 2010 levels. This spread is huge, representing almost $4 trillion in housing market value. This is a gut wrenching time for market stakeholders and policymakers, because each of these scenarios is plausible.”

For more information please visit www.realestateeconomywatch.com.

* This information is meant to be helpful and for informational purposes ONLY*
Meyling Calero
RMG Realty Group Inc.
Lic. Real Estate Sales Associate
Short Sale Specialist
MeylingCalero@aol.com
(305)771-5154
www.MeylingRealEstate.com
2011 Women's Council of Realtors VP of Membership
2010 Women's Council of Realtors Secretary
2009 Women's Council of Realtors Treasurer
2008 Women's Council of Realtors Ways and Means Chair

For more information on your Real Estate needs or concerns, contact Meyling at MeylingCalero@aol.com or Visit www.MeylingRealEstate.com

Homebuyers: Do your homework on home warranties

2011-07-06T05:21:00.000-07:00

Submitted by Deborah Boza-Va... on 30 April 2011 - 3:19am

WASHINGTON – April 29, 2011 – Home sellers hoping to close a deal sometimes agree to purchase home warranties to give their buyers peace of mind.

Prospective homeowners, however, should do their homework to make sure the policies, which typically cover the major mechanicals and appliances in a home for one year after the sale, will actually help, say consumer protection experts.

The warranties range in price from $350 to $800. If purchased from reputable companies, they can help homeowners deal with broken appliances, malfunctioning air conditioning and other problems, the experts say. The policies usually call for homeowners to contact the service company when something breaks. The company then sends out a repair person who provides an evaluation for a set fee, usually about $65. Once a professional has determined what the problem is, the warranty company pays for the broken item to be repaired or replaced.

Often, homeowners dislike transferring that decision-making power to a third party, said Angie Hicks, founder of Angie’s List, the national consumer rating service based in Indianapolis. Users of home warranty or home service companies have been the least satisfied group of reviewers on the site for the past six years, she said.

Homeowners often expect the companies to replace the item and are disappointed to learn it’s going to be repaired, added Bob Miller, president-elect of the Ohio Association of Realtors in Columbus, Ohio.

“They’re going to try and fix things before they give new ones,” he said.

It wouldn’t be economically viable to replace furnaces, washers and garbage disposals that can be repaired, said Art Chartrand, spokesman for the National Home Service Contract Association, headquartered in Olathe, Kan.

“If servicing it will take care of it, we’ll service it,” he said. “We certainly don’t want our product oversold.”

Homeowners may end up surprised by the details of their policies because the contracts are often bought as closing gifts, so the person using the service is not the one who bought it, Hicks said. That means the user did not have a chance to research the company and carefully evaluate the policy before it was purchased, she said.

When William Merritt bought his first house last summer in Leander, Texas, the seller purchased a warranty for him. He’s been satisfied with the service so far, but wishes he had had the opportunity to vet the company himself.

“When I go to renew, I’ll look at all the options,” said Merritt, whose warranty recently covered an $800 repair to his pool pump. “I’ll definitely do my research.”

Sheila Adkins, a spokeswoman for the council of Better Business Bureaus, in Arlington, Va., recommends researching home warranty or home service contract providers before making an offer on a house. When it’s time to buy, ask for the company by name in the offer, she said.

It’s a reasonable request, Miller added. Many home sellers are expecting to buy the agreements and should be willing to go with the company of the buyer’s choosing, he said.

“Depending on who you go with, you can get some really good stuff out of these,” Miller said.

Angie’s List members also have had issues with some contractors that warranty companies send on service calls, Hicks said. She suggests asking the company that holds the policy for a list of the plumbers, electricians and repair people it uses, and checking them out before a problem occurs. When something goes wrong, request the contractor with the best track record, she said.

Other tips for selecting a home service provider:

• Find out exactly what the contract covers and how much the service fee is. Pools, spa tubs and other specialty items might not be included.

• Check to see if the company has policies on pre-existing conditions, and whether those repairs would be covered.

• Find out how the company handles complaints about the contractors who handle repairs.

• Ask if the company will let you buy a new appliance or item at a reduced rate if you would rather not have it repaired.

Copyright © 2011 The Associated Press, Melissa Kossler Dutton.

* This information is meant to be helpful and for informational purposes ONLY*
Meyling Calero RMG Realty Group Inc.
Lic. Real Estate Sales Associate
Short Sale Specialist
MeylingCalero@aol.com
(305)771-5154
http://www.meylingrealestate.com/
2011 Women's Council of Realtors VP of Membership
2010 Women's Council of Realtors Secretary
2009 Women's Council of Realtors Treasurer
2008 Women's Council of Realtors Ways and Means Chair

For more information on your Real Estate needs or concerns, contact Meyling at MeylingCalero@aol.com or Visit www.MeylingRealEstate.com

Renters Can Do Plenty to Make their Homes More Eco-Friendly

2011-07-06T05:10:00.000-07:00

Submitted by Deborah Boza-Va... on 6 July 2011 - 5:50am

RISMEDIA, July 6, 2011—(MCT)—So you’re a renter and you want to green your space, but your landlord won’t splurge on solar panels. Don’t fret. There are plenty of low-cost ways for apartment dwellers to be eco-friendly.

You can be a green tenant by unplugging appliances or using chemical-free products. Also, try fixing leaky faucets or installing window treatments to conserve heat in the winter and to keep your place cool in the summer without cranking up the air conditioning.

“There’s a myth that there isn’t a lot that renters can do,” says Paula Cino, director of Energy and Environmental Policy with the National Multi Housing Council. “Our individual behavior has a huge impact on sustainability. The resident has a lot of opportunity to make big differences themselves without any input from the landlord whatsoever.”

Take it from Colin Beavan. The 46-year-old New York writer embarked on a yearlong experiment to see how much he could shrink his environmental footprint. He used candles instead of electric lights. He gave away his air conditioner. He unplugged his freezer and reduced his trash production. Beavan chronicled his efforts on a blog, “No Impact Man.” In addition to cutting his power bills, he figures he and his family eliminated 4,000 gallons of garbage that would have otherwise ended up in dumps.

“The problem for apartment dwellers is that you can’t change the infrastructure of the building,” he says. “So it comes down to using less.”

Recycling:

Americans are consumers to the core, rapidly accumulating and discarding belongings that gobble up energy as they’re manufactured, delivered and then eventually dumped into landfills.

“Many of us have just been flying through things, purchasing at alarming rates and making no commitment to the things we already have,” says Wanda Urbanska, author of The Heart of Simple Living. “People have not considered that purchasing all new products involves a heavy carbon cost,” she says.

But the recession stopped some people in their consumerist tracks. Enter green renters like Leslie Gant, 27.

“I don’t have the budget to get a Prius, so I use all the other little things to make a difference,” says Gant, whose airy, split-level condo in L.A.’s Westwood neighborhood is filled with reused and recycled items.

Her seven-piece dining room set and other furnishings are hand-me-downs or used items plucked from Craigslist, garage sales, even recycling bins. Her wardrobe comes from thrift shops and clothing swaps.

“It’s not difficult at all,” says Gant, who shares the 900-square-foot space with a roommate. “It’s fun for your inner scavenger. Oh, and it gives me peace of mind.”

To preserve trees, she stocks her bathroom with toilet tissue made from recycled paper and cleans with old rags. If every household in the nation swapped just one roll of traditional toilet paper for a recycled roll, the effort could save 424,000 trees, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council. The environmental group has created a shoppers’ guide to recycled paper products.

For tenants whose buildings don’t participate in a recycling program, Earth911.com lists local recycling collection centers.

And if you’re moving, Rent a Green Box of Costa Mesa, Calif., offers packing crates made from recycled plastic bottles and old cereal boxes.

But reusing materials doesn’t have to be a utilitarian endeavor. Make your music sound sweeter by using sustainable stereo speakers, some of which are made with old sliding door casings. OrigAudio makes a set using recycled newspapers, phone books and pizza boxes, and the Bon Eco Subwoofer 500 is made from old tires and wheat straw fiber.

Water:

Water requires energy. Lots of it. Pumping it, transporting it, irrigating with it, heating it and treating it consume billions of kilowatt-hours of electricity in the U.S. each year. Producing all that power creates carbon dioxide, the equivalent of 4million cars, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council.

So if you want to conserve energy and reduce greenhouse gases, use less water around your place.

For starters, collect your old bath water or dishwater. Known as gray water, it can be used to water houseplants or for outdoor irrigation. But you’ll want to use only natural, biodegradable soap to keep from harming your greenery and to keep chemicals from leaching into the water.

Then there’s the toilet. Flushing accounts for about 30% of the water consumed in an average home, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Gant the recycler flushes sparingly.

If that’s too indelicate for you, try a trick used by Sarah Masson, 25, of Los Feliz, Calif. The television writing assistant placed a 2-liter soda bottle filled with water in her toilet tank to displace some of the water, reducing the amount used in each flush-refill cycle. You can also buy a bigger float ball or adjust the existing one so that it rests closer to the bottom of the tank, shutting off the refill valve earlier.

Water monitors such as the ShowerTime from Efergy and the Waterpebble track the amount of water you’ve used in the shower and set off an alarm when you reach a pre-set limit.

Or install faucet aerators and low-flow shower heads to cut back water use.

Electricity:

Your 700-square-foot pad probably isn’t equipped with solar panels or a wind turbine generator. But chances are your power company is generating a portion of its electricity with clean sources of energy. You can tap into those renewables—though it might cost you a little extra.

That’s because clean power often costs more to generate than electricity from conventional sources such as coal or natural gas. To pay for it, some utilities are offering opt-in programs for ratepayers who wish to support clean power investments through a small surcharge on their monthly bills.

The extra cost is worth it to Tracy Hepler. The 26-year-old founder of the online sustainable living magazine YourDailyThread.com paid an extra $9.39 every two months at her one-bedroom Fairfax-neighborhood apartment to support the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s green energy program. She’s planning to sign up for a similar program at her new Santa Monica, Calif., apartment.

More than 750 utilities across the country now offer similar options, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

Another tactic: Find out which appliances are the biggest power consumers in your apartment with an energy audit, which public utilities usually offer free (hint: refrigerators are major energy hogs) and consider replacing them with energy-efficient models, even if your landlord won’t cover the swap.

Even when they’re switched off, most home appliances and electronic devices continue drawing a little bit of power as long as they’re plugged in. These “vampires” account for an estimated 10% of residential energy use in the U.S.

Shedding these leeches is easy. Simply unplug the stuff you don’t use most of the time. Make it easy on yourself by plugging clusters of devices into a single power strip that can be switched on and off.

Some “power towers” automatically sense voltage dips when attached devices go into sleep mode and adjust output accordingly, lowering standby power use by up to 85 percent.

Better yet, recharge your gadgets with a solar-powered charger.

And you don’t need to own the roof over your head to install solar panels. Companies like Veranda Solar are developing panels that can hang from your window ledge or clip on to gutters and balconies. The systems are smaller and more portable than traditional installations and, at less than $1,000, a tiny fraction of the price.

Even easier, replace burned-out incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs, which use about 75% less energy.

Dealing with the landlord:

Now that you’ve done what you can to green your space, here comes the hard part: greening your landlord.

Apartment owners these days are in penny-pinching mode and aren’t likely to spring for environmental improvements—unless you can show them how they too can save money by doing it.

“That’s something they’re very responsive to,” Cino says.

Some tenants are now pushing for so-called green leases—a contract that would lay out how renters and apartment owners split the cost of eco-friendly upgrades.

Ask your complex to swap out inefficient outdoor lights with ones activated by motion sensors, install timers for sprinklers and replace old appliances with Energy Star-rated products. Persuade your landlord to caulk and tint windows and add programmable thermostats to get the most out of air conditioning and heaters.

And setting up a barrel to catch rainwater from gutters and downspouts isn’t difficult.

The city of Los Angeles is considering expanding a popular program from last year that installed free 55-gallon barrels.

Basic eco-upgrades to a 900-square-foot apartment can cost just $150, says Doug Walker, senior vice president of UDR Inc., a Colorado-based multifamily real estate investment trust. Chemical-free paints and adhesives now cost no more than their traditional competitors, he said.

Managers at the Park La Brea apartments are overhauling the decades-old property with low-emission water heaters, recycled nylon carpet and drought-tolerant landscaping. They painted the roof of one building white to reflect sunlight and help keep the upper floors cool.

They’re now weighing the cost of installing solar panels and retrofitting laundry rooms to divert wastewater for irrigation.

“It’s a challenge with an older complex in Los Angeles that’s rent stabilized,” general manager Ron Bowdoin says. “The ability to pass costs on to residents is very limited.”

In a time of high vacancy rates, landlords are also more inclined to make their tenants happy, says Annie Argento, the Southern California director for sustainability consulting firm Brightworks.

“There is economic payback here in the form of tenant retention, quicker lease-up rates, etc.,” she says. “It’s just looking at the equation from a broader perspective.”

Green Tips for Renters:

Living green is possible even if you rent. Here are some ways to make an apartment eco-friendly:
• Use biodegradable trash bags.
• Run the dishwasher full, then air-dry the dishes.
• Put aerators on faucets to save water.
• Buy chemical-free cleaning supplies. Or make your own. Use vinegar and old newspapers to shine windows. Scrub countertops with baking soda.
• Help your refrigerator stay cool by cleaning the coils regularly and locating it far from the stove.
• Grow your own fruit and vegetables in a window box or in pots.
• Unplug small appliances when they’re not in use.
• Chuck coffee grounds and vegetable and fruit scraps into a composter.

(c) 2010, Los Angeles Times.

* This information is meant to be helpful and for informational purposes ONLY*
Meyling Calero
RMG Realty Group Inc.
Lic. Real Estate Sales Associate
Short Sale Specialist
MeylingCalero@aol.com
(305)771-5154
http://www.meylingrealestate.com/
2011 Women's Council of Realtors VP of Membership
2010 Women's Council of Realtors Secretary
2009 Women's Council of Realtors Treasurer
2008 Women's Council of Realtors Ways and Means Chair

For more information on your Real Estate needs or concerns, contact Meyling at MeylingCalero@aol.com or Visit www.MeylingRealEstate.com

In foreclosure? Get in line.

2011-07-01T16:19:00.000-07:00

NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. – July 1, 2011 – On a recent morning at the county courthouse here, retired circuit court judge Wayne Cobb surveyed the hundreds of files stacked before him, each a foreclosure case waiting to be finalized, dismissed or delayed.

“We’re jammed up,” he said.

That logjam won’t fade soon. Funding for Florida’s “rocket docket,” which allowed the state’s courts to hire additional staff and bring back retired judges to plow through its foreclosure backlog - but raised questions about fairness for homeowners - ended Thursday. That leaves fewer people and less money to tackle the state’s 300,000 lingering foreclosure cases, with more on the way.But Florida is far from alone.

Across the country, states are wrestling with mounting foreclosure backlogs, exacerbated by borrowers who continue to fall behind on their mortgages. That has left the housing market languishing long after the financial crisis, and it has hindered the nation’s broader economic recovery.

“Housing has always led the way . . . and it’s just not doing that,” said Christopher Mayer, a professor of real estate at Columbia Business School in New York. “It’s very hard to imagine the economy’s really going to pick up without housing doing more.”

Skepticism about the prospects for a quick housing recovery seems warranted, given recent numbers.
According to the real estate data firm LPS Applied Analytics, more than 2 million home loans across the country are in foreclosure, and nearly 2 million more are more than 90 days delinquent. Of those borrowers who are more than three months behind on their mortgages, more than 40 percent have not made a payment in more than a year.

“What all this is saying,” said Herb Blecher, an LPS senior vice president, “is that unless things change in a very big way, this is going to go on for a very long time.”

In addition, the amount of time it takes to foreclose on a home - particularly in the 23 states that require court approval - has continued to grow longer, according to data from RealtyTrac.

In early 2007, it took less than six months on average to complete a foreclosure proceeding in Florida. Four years later, it takes an average of 619 days.

In New York, it now takes 924 days to foreclose, up from 263. In New Jersey, it takes 908 days, up from 297. Foreclosure timelines also have grown in Maryland and Virginia, though less drastically. Nationwide, the time that it takes to complete a foreclosure has more than doubled, to an average of 400 days.

“There have been several things that have intervened in the foreclosure process to delay it and slow it down,” said RealtyTrac’s communications director, Daren Blomquist.

For starters, the number of new cases has fallen dramatically since the fall, when several major banks halted new foreclosures after revelations of widespread paperwork problems that led to questions over who exactly owned the properties being foreclosed upon. Much of the controversy focused on “robo-signing,” in which employees signed someone else’s name on affidavits or did not verify the facts they were attesting to.

That scandal prompted ongoing state and federal investigations and embroiled some of the country’s largest banks in multibillion-dollar settlement negotiations that have yet to be resolved. More homeowners facing foreclosure began to challenge the legitimacy of the cases against them, and some judges are looking at foreclosure filings with increased scrutiny.

Various states also have put in place rules that have slowed the foreclosure process further. In a handful of states, such as Connecticut and New York, lenders are now required to meet with borrowers as part of a mediation effort to prevent avoidable foreclosures, but that takes time. Lawyers in New York also are required to submit a form verifying the accuracy of their foreclosure filings.

In addition, some law firms that came to be known as foreclosure mills - ones that handled a huge number of cases for large financial companies, particularly in Florida - have closed during investigations into their business practices. That has thrown another wrench into the the legal process and further slowed the rate of foreclosures.

Altogether, banks and mortgage lenders hold more than 875,000 foreclosed homes, according to RealtyTrac. Even without the many foreclosures still in the pipeline, Blomquist said, such a massive inventory will take more than two years to clear at the current sales rate.

The holdup has been a blessing to some troubled borrowers, who have had more time to improve their finances, sell their homes or work with lenders on loan modifications. But it also has cast a long shadow over the larger economic recovery and increased the risk that some homeowners will choose not to pay their mortgages - even if they can - knowing that any reckoning will not come quickly.

In Pasco County, Cobb churned through the cases quickly, but the stacks of files seemed slow to shrink. Several frazzled homeowners showed up to argue their cases and tell their hard-luck stories. He mostly ruled against them but wished them luck.

Lawyer Steven Jonas got one client’s foreclosure delayed because the bank filed faulty paperwork. He said that he is glad to see the “rocket dockets” go and that a more deliberate process will be more fair for average homeowners. But he also realizes that the logjam has larger consequences.

“We’re backlogged now,” he said, but “it’s going to get worse.”

Copyright © 2011 washingtonpost.com, Brady Dennis. All rights reserved.

* This information is meant to be helpful and for informational purposes ONLY*
Meyling Calero
RMG Realty Group Inc.
Lic. Real Estate Sales Associate
Short Sale Specialist
MeylingCalero@aol.com
(305)771-5154
http://www.meylingrealestate.com/

2011 Women's Council of Realtors VP of Membership
2010 Women's Council of Realtors Secretary
2009 Women's Council of Realtors Treasurer
2008 Women's Council of Realtors Ways and Means Chair

For more information on your Real Estate needs or concerns, contact Meyling at MeylingCalero@aol.com or Visit www.MeylingRealEstate.com

New real estate-related laws take effect July 1

2011-06-30T18:47:00.000-07:00

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — June 30, 2011 — It took five years to accomplish, but starting tomorrow, the $243 million cap on the housing trust funds is history.

A bill passed by the 2011 Florida Legislature removes the cap enacted by the 2004 Legislature at the peak of the housing boom. Since 2007, when the $243 million limit took effect, Florida Realtors and nearly three dozen other organizations lobbied lawmakers to “scrap the cap” on the Sadowski Housing Trust Funds. The fund is sustained entirely by a portion of documentary stamp taxes paid on deeds.

“Ensuring that doc stamps will still be directed to affordable housing, their intended purpose, is a huge win for Florida families and for the Florida Realtors organization, which played a big part in the creation of the Sadowski Affordable Housing Act in 1992,” says John Sebree, Florida Realtors vice president of Public Policy. “We owe a tremendous amount of credit to Rep. Gary Aubuchon (R-Cape Coral) and to Sen. Mike Bennett (R-Bradenton) for sponsoring HB 639 and SB 912 and restoring trust in the housing trust funds.”

This year, the Florida Housing Finance Corporation has $64 million for state and local housing programs for downpayment assistance, foreclosure prevention and renovating properties for low- to moderate-income families.

HB 639/SB 912 and eight other real estate-related bills take effect tomorrow. Of particular interest to Realtors is HB 849, which changes the initial requirements for certain persons acting as home inspectors and removes language enacted last year that allowed Division 1 contractors to perform both the home inspection and make repairs.

As a result, the Home Inspection Disclosure has been updated to reflect the fact that home inspectors are regulated and licensed by the state. HID-2 is available from FormSimplicity (login required).

Other laws taking effect July 1, 2011, include:

Protection for title insurance policyholders. HB 1007 was introduced on behalf of the Department of Financial Services (DFS) to ensure that property owners continue to have title insurance coverage even if their underwriter is liquidated. When an underwriter is liquidated, as is currently the case, all other underwriters in the state will pay an assessment to DFS. This assessment will be passed on — over a period not to exceed seven years — to new policyholders in the form of a surcharge of up to $25. DFS indicates that the surcharge resulting from the underwriter currently being liquidated would be significantly less than $25.

You’re S.A.F.E. to move about the transaction. SB 1316 codifies into the Florida S.A.F.E. Mortgage Licensing Act the same language contained in a federal act that allows Florida real estate licensees to list and sell short sales without having to first obtain additional licensure under Chapter 494.

Sales associates catch business tax break. Sales associates who don’t currently pay a business tax (formerly known as occupational licenses taxes) at the local level should be happy with HB 311. Local governments that were not collecting business taxes from sales associates on Oct. 13, 2010, may not do so in the future. Local governments that were collecting business taxes from sales associates on that date are not impacted.

More changes to condo and homeowners’ association laws. HB 1195 seeks to fix aspects of last year’s big condo legislation. Among the highlights:

• Allows condo, homeowners and cooperative associations to demand full monthly rent from tenants in properties of owners who are behind in maintenance payments. Landlords are banned from punishing tenants who comply with the law.

• Exempts condos less than four stories high with exterior corridors from installing manual fire alarm systems.

• Permits associations to install impact glass and other code-compliant windows for hurricane protection.

• Prevents unit owners who are delinquent in their association fees to access common areas and other community assets.

Economic development — possibly to benefit affordable housing. HB 7205 creates a new trust fund to be used for economic development efforts. The State Economic Enhancement and Development Trust Fund will be established in July 2012 and will initially include $125 million drawn from money that now flows to the state's affordable housing trust fund and the state's road-building trust fund.

Challenging property tax assessments. So many property owners are challenging their assessments that it has resulted in a number of school boards being unable to forecast their budgets. As a result, Rep. Ana Rivas Logan (R-Miami) filed HB 281 on behalf of the Miami-Dade School Board. As originally filed, this bill required property owners who appealed their assessment to pay 75 percent of the appraised value. Florida Realtors helped to amend the bill to allow owners to make a good faith payment during the appeal process if it extends beyond April 1 of the next year. The new law will apply to petitions filed with value adjustments boards on or after July 1, 2011.

Curbing adverse possession scams. SB 1142 seeks to make it more difficult for people to take possession of homes vacated, often due to foreclosure or other financial hardships, and claim ownership under adverse possession. Among other things, the new law requires county property appraisers to notify the owner of record when an adverse possession claim is made on their property, and giving this individual priority on paying back taxes.

© 2011 Florida Realtors®

* This information is meant to be helpful and for informational purposes ONLY*
Meyling Calero RMG Realty Group Inc.
Lic. Real Estate Sales Associate
Short Sale Specialist
MeylingCalero@aol.com
(305)771-5154
http://www.meylingrealestate.com/

2011 Women's Council of Realtors VP of Membership
2010 Women's Council of Realtors Secretary
2009 Women's Council of Realtors Treasurer
2008 Women's Council of Realtors Ways and Means Chair

For more information on your Real Estate needs or concerns, contact Meyling at MeylingCalero@aol.com or Visit www.MeylingRealEstate.com

A home inspection is well worth the investment.

2011-06-29T05:34:00.000-07:00

A buyer will spend thousands of dollars purchasing a home. Therefore, having a home inspection is one of the most important things a buyer should do. For a few hundred dollars, typically between $350 to $450, you will get a piece of mind in purchasing your home.
By: Shane Halajko June 29, 2011 12:01 AM Agent in Seekonk, MA

A home inspector can point out any major defects in the home including problems with the furnace, electrical systems, roof, plumbing, radon and insects. This allows the buyer to request from the seller to have major issues corrected at the seller’s cost by a licensed professional (unless the seller disclosed these issues on the seller’s disclosure form).

A couple of important items to keep in mind: Massachusetts home owners are not required to fill out seller’s disclosures. In Rhode Island, seller’s disclosures are mandatory. Massachusetts’s home inspectors must be licensed. Rhode Island does not have this requirement - but they do require the home inspector to be a licensed general contractor.

According to the MA MLS PIN, there are 80 single-family homes on the market with the average listing price of $372,091. This is a lot of inventory for a buyer to choose from. My advice to sellers, make sure the condition of your home will pass a home inspection. Having a pre-home inspection completed can do this. If your home does not pass a home inspection, the buyer may decide to move onto another home. They have plenty to choose from.

* This information is meant to be helpful and for informational purposes ONLY*
Meyling Calero
RMG Realty Group Inc.
Lic. Real Estate Sales Associate
Short Sale Specialist
MeylingCalero@aol.com
(305)771-5154
http://www.meylingrealestate.com/

2011 Women's Council of Realtors VP of Membership
2010 Women's Council of Realtors Secretary
2009 Women's Council of Realtors Treasurer
2008 Women's Council of Realtors Ways and Means Chair

For more information on your Real Estate needs or concerns, contact Meyling at MeylingCalero@aol.com or Visit www.MeylingRealEstate.com

How long is the wait to buy after foreclosure?

2011-06-28T16:10:00.000-07:00

NEW YORK – June 28, 2011 – A sluggish housing market has caused millions of homeowners to lose their home to foreclosure, short sale, or deed in lieu of foreclosure. But once these former homeowners get a better handle on their credit, how long do they have to sit on the sidelines until they can secure future financing to buy a home again?

As an article in The New York Times notes, “there are plenty of asterisks and conditions” when it comes to how long a borrower must wait after a “significant derogatory event,” like a foreclosure or short sale.

In general, however, The New York Times reports that the longest wait to buy again will come if there is a foreclosure in the former homeowner’s past.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have a three-year waiting period following a foreclosure, and a two-year wait following a short sale, deed in lieu, or discharge or dismissal of bankruptcy. However, if borrowers can justify that the circumstance for the foreclosure or bankruptcy occurred because of an illness or job loss — or other “extenuating circumstance” — that may help reduce their wait. But with no such extenuating circumstances, these former homeowners may have to wait longer, even up to seven years following a foreclosure or four years after bankruptcy, the article notes.

For loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration, borrowers with perfect credit afterwards also will, in general, have to wait three years after a foreclosure and two years after a bankruptcy is discharged, The New York Times notes.

Following a short sale, borrowers will have to wait three years to secure another FHA loan — however, there are plenty of exceptions. Borrowers will have to wait three years if they were in default at the time of the short sale and had no extenuating circumstances. However, if the borrowers were on time with all their payments a year prior to the short sale, they may have no wait at all and might even qualify for an FHA loan immediately.

“The key is to avoid the foreclosure,” Andrew Wilson, a spokesman for Fannie Mae, told The New York Times. “That is what will help you be eligible for the shorter period.”

Source: “The Post-Foreclosure Wait,” The New York Times, (June 23, 2011)
© Copyright 2011 INFORMATION, INC. Bethesda, MD (301) 215-4688

* This information is meant to be helpful and for informational purposes ONLY*
Meyling Calero
RMG Realty Group Inc.
Lic. Real Estate Sales Associate
Short Sale Specialist
MeylingCalero@aol.com
(305)771-5154
http://www.meylingrealestate.com/

2011 Women's Council of Realtors VP of Membership
2010 Women's Council of Realtors Secretary
2009 Women's Council of Realtors Treasurer
2008 Women's Council of Realtors Ways and Means Chair

For more information on your Real Estate needs or concerns, contact Meyling at MeylingCalero@aol.com or Visit www.MeylingRealEstate.com

Miami-Dade Home current value chart

2011-06-28T04:10:00.000-07:00

Miami-Dade Zillow Home Value Index

Miami-Dade Home Values - Interactive chart

* This information is meant to be helpful and for informational purposes ONLY*
Meyling Calero
RMG Realty Group Inc.
Lic. Real Estate Sales Associate
Short Sale Specialist
MeylingCalero@aol.com
(305)771-5154
http://www.meylingrealestate.com/
2011 Women's Council of Realtors VP of Membership
2010 Women's Council of Realtors Secretary
2009 Women's Council of Realtors Treasurer
2008 Women's Council of Realtors Ways and Means Chair

For more information on your Real Estate needs or concerns, contact Meyling at MeylingCalero@aol.com or Visit www.MeylingRealEstate.com

Mortgage Applications Decrease in Latest MBA Weekly Survey

2011-06-28T04:03:00.000-07:00

RISMEDIA, June 27, 2011— Mortgage applications decreased 5.9 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending June 17, 2011.

The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased 5.9 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 6.2 percent compared with the previous week. The Refinance Index decreased 7.2 percent from the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 2.8 percent from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index decreased 3.9 percent compared with the previous week and was 4.4 percent higher than the same week one year ago.

The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is up 0.4 percent. The four week moving average is down 0.7 percent for the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index, while this average is up 0.8 percent for the Refinance Index.

The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 69.2 percent of total applications from 70.0 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 5.9 percent from 6.1 percent of total applications from the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 4.57 percent from 4.51 percent, with points decreasing to 0.91 from 1.04 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans. The effective rate also increased from last week.

The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 3.70 percent from 3.67 percent, with points decreasing to 1.05 from 1.06 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. The effective rate also increased from last week.

If you would like to purchase a subscription of MBA’s Weekly Applications Survey, please contact mbaresearch@mortgagebankers.org.

Article sourcce: MiamiReBlog

* This information is meant to be helpful and for informational purposes ONLY*
Meyling Calero
RMG Realty Group Inc.
Lic. Real Estate Sales Associate
Short Sale Specialist
MeylingCalero@aol.com
(305)771-5154
http://www.meylingrealestate.com/
2011 Women's Council of Realtors VP of Membership
2010 Women's Council of Realtors Secretary
2009 Women's Council of Realtors Treasurer
2008 Women's Council of Realtors Ways and Means Chair

For more information on your Real Estate needs or concerns, contact Meyling at MeylingCalero@aol.com or Visit www.MeylingRealEstate.com

Experts Agree Prices Have Bottomed Out and Will Stay There

2011-06-28T03:57:00.000-07:00

RISMEDIA, June 28, 2011— By Steve Cook - A significant majority of the 108 economists and experts participating in MacroMarkets’ June Price Home Expectations panelists believe that the bottom for home prices arrived in the first quarter or will arrive sometime before year-end.

Despite persistent macroeconomic uncertainty and unprecedented housing market dysfunction, almost two-thirds of the panelists see the U.S. residential real estate market as at an historic turning point, says Robert Shiller, MacroMarkets co-founder and chief economist.

However, expectations for the pace of recovery fell. The group of 69 panelists who are currently forecasting a 2011 turning point predict less than two percent average annual growth in nominal home prices over the five-year period ending December 2015. The average expected cumulative home price change between Q4 2010 and Q4 2015 is just 5.71 percent, $1.2 trillion less in aggregate U.S. single-family housing wealth at the end of 2015 than projected just six months ago.

Terry Loebs, MacroMarkets managing director, confirmed that a wide variety of individual views continue to be expressed by the panel. Loebs says, “Looking at expected housing market performance through the five year period ending 2015, the most optimistic quartile of panelists projects 15.3 percent average price growth, while the most pessimistic quartile of panelists projects 6.0 price average price erosion from Q4 2010 levels. This spread is huge, representing almost $4 trillion in housing market value. This is a gut wrenching time for market stakeholders and policymakers, because each of these scenarios is plausible.”

For more information please visit www.realestateeconomywatch.com.

* This information is meant to be helpful and for informational purposes ONLY*
Meyling Calero
RMG Realty Group Inc.
Lic. Real Estate Sales Associate
Short Sale Specialist
MeylingCalero@aol.com
(305)771-5154
http://www.meylingrealestate.com/
2011 Women's Council of Realtors VP of Membership
2010 Women's Council of Realtors Secretary
2009 Women's Council of Realtors Treasurer
2008 Women's Council of Realtors Ways and Means Chair

For more information on your Real Estate needs or concerns, contact Meyling at MeylingCalero@aol.com or Visit www.MeylingRealEstate.com

Many homebuyers don’t understand mortgages

2011-06-27T05:28:00.000-07:00

SEATTLE – May 4, 2011 – A survey conducted by Zillow.com finds that many prospective homebuyers don’t understand even basic information about mortgages, relying heavily on advice from lenders.

Fairly simple mortgage questions were answered incorrectly almost half (46 percent) the time according to a Zillow Mortgage Marketplace survey; and 44 percent admitted they’re not confident in their knowledge of mortgages or the mortgage process.

For example, 57 percent of prospective homebuyers polled don’t understand how adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) work. When asked if interest rates on 5/1 ARMs always reset higher after five years, the majority of homebuyers answered yes. However, an ARM interest rate will adjust to the prevailing rate after five years and in could even go lower. Currently, many borrowers whose ARMs have recently reset have lower interest rates than they did when they took out the loan.

Additionally, one-third (34 percent) of prospective homebuyers don’t understand that lender fees are negotiable and that they vary by lender. They mistakenly believe lenders are required by law to charge the same fees for credit reports and appraisals. Consequently, they don’t shop around for lower fees.

“Most people wouldn’t jump out of a plane if they didn’t know how to use a parachute, yet each year many buyers commit to the largest loan they will take out in their lifetimes without understanding essential information about mortgages,” says Zillow Mortgage Marketplace Director Erin Lantz. “By simply spending a few hours researching how a mortgage works and shopping around for the most competitive rates and fees, buyers can save a lot of money.”

Additional findings from prospective home buyers polled:

• Nearly half (45 percent) believe that they should always buy mortgage discount points when obtaining a mortgage. However, because mortgage discount points are simply prepaid interest, the decision should depend on how long the borrower intends to own the home. In some cases, they may not stay in the house long enough to break even.

• More than half (55 percent) do not understand that mortgage rates vary throughout the day, similar to how stock prices can change throughout the day. To get the optimum rate, it’s important to monitor rates and shop around.

• More than one-third (37 percent) believe that pre-qualifying for a loan means they have secured financing. But “pre-qualification” describes the earliest step in the process when a lender approximates how much a borrower can afford – but doesn’t run a credit report or request any documentation to verify the information. Although there is not a reliable industry standard definition of pre-qualification, financing is never secured until a lender approves a loan application without conditions.

• More than two in five (42 percent) do not understand that Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans are available to all buyers. Instead, they believe only first-time buyers qualify. FHA loans can cost less for many buyers, including repeat buyers, with low to average credit scores and downpayments less than 20 percent.

Article Source © 2011 Florida Realtors®

* This information is meant to be helpful and for informational purposes ONLY*

Meyling Calero
RMG Realty Group Inc.
Lic. Real Estate Sales Associate
Short Sale Specialist
MeylingCalero@aol.com
(305)771-5154

http://www.meylingrealestate.com/

2011 Women's Council of Realtors VP of Membership
2010 Women's Council of Realtors Secretary
2009 Women's Council of Realtors Treasurer
2008 Women's Council of Realtors Ways and Means Chair

For more information on your Real Estate needs or concerns, contact Meyling at MeylingCalero@aol.com or Visit www.MeylingRealEstate.com

Cash buyers scooping up homes

2011-06-27T05:11:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON – June 22, 2011 – Cash buyers are snapping up homes in markets nationwide, betting that deals won’t get much better.

Last month, all-cash buyers accounted for 30 percent of existing home sales, up from 25 percent in May 2010, and 12 percent two years ago, says the National Association of Realtors.

Cash buyers, who are mostly investors, accounted for at least 30 percent of existing-home sales for the fifth-straight month, the association says. They hit 35 percent of buyers in March.The cash buyers are enticed by low prices and potential rental income, economists say. But while their activity has helped curb price drops, price increases have yet to follow.

In May, the median price of an existing single-family home fell 4.5 percent to $166,700 from a year ago, the association reported Tuesday. Volume also dropped. Existing home sales in the month including single family, condos and townhouses were down 15 percent from the previous May, when a federal tax credit boosted sales.

Without cash buyers, “We would be in much worse shape than we are,” says Jim Gillespie, CEO of Coldwell Banker Real Estate. “They recognize that this is the smartest time to buy,” because U.S. home prices are 33 percent below their 2006 peak.Cash buyers are especially prevalent in markets where prices have fallen the most, often areas hard hit by foreclosures.

In Las Vegas, the foreclosure capitol of the U.S. for the past four years, cash buyers accounted for 49 percent of first-quarter sales vs. 20 percent in the first quarter of 1997, says data from real estate site Zillow.com. In that area, home prices are almost 60 percent off their 2006 peak.

In the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area, 63 percent of first-quarter buyers paid in cash, vs. 39 percent in 1997’s first quarter, Zillow says.

Phoenix is also seeing more cash buyers, 44 percent in the first quarter up from 25 percent in the same 1997 period, Zillow data show.The big numbers are “positive news,” says Stan Humphries, Zillow chief economist. “These are people who’re getting back into the market because they see good value.”

Cash buyers often get better deals because sellers know their offers won’t fall through for lack of financing, says Walt Danley, president of the luxury real estate firm The Walt Danley Group in Arizona. A discount of up to 5 percent is typical, he says.

While Danley sees many foreign buyers paying cash, investors looking for rentals are also big cash buyers.
Given low prices, they can buy homes, rent them and be immediately cash-flow positive, says Paul Dales, an economist for Capital Economics.

© Copyright 2011 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc., Julie Schmit.

* This information is meant to be helpful and for informational purposes ONLY*

Meyling Calero RMG Realty Group Inc.
Lic. Real Estate Sales Associate
Short Sale Specialist
MeylingCalero@aol.com
(305)771-5154
http://www.meylingrealestate.com/

2011 Women's Council of Realtors VP of Membership
2010 Women's Council of Realtors Secretary
2009 Women's Council of Realtors Treasurer
2008 Women's Council of Realtors Ways and Means Chair

For more information on your Real Estate needs or concerns, contact Meyling at MeylingCalero@aol.com or Visit www.MeylingRealEstate.com

South Florida real estate paradox: High volume cuts inventory but prices stay low - Real Estate News - MiamiHerald.com

2011-06-23T05:35:00.001-07:00

The volume of South Florida home sales rose, continuing a record-setting pace. Prices, however, are still on the decline, although there are signs of stabilization.

New data released on home sales looks at trends that shouldn't co-exist: rising sales/falling inventory and plunging prices. Fort Lauderdale Realtor Michael Elliott puts a SOLD sign on the shingle outside a home in Wilton Manors that sold recently after a short time on the market, June 21, 2011.

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Buy Photo
New data released on home sales looks at trends that shouldn't co-exist: rising sales/falling inventory and plunging prices. Fort Lauderdale Realtor Michael Elliott puts a SOLD sign on the shingle outside a home in Wilton Manors that sold recently after a short time on the market, June 21, 2011.
Read more… South Florida real estate paradox: High volume cuts inventory but prices stay low
Charles Trainor Jr. / MIami Herald Staff

Photo

By TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA

tolorunnipa@MiamiHerald.com

South Florida’s logic-defying housing market continued to embrace peculiar trend lines in May — sales soared, slashing down the inventory even further, but overall prices fell once again.
Market trends in Miami-Dade and Broward counties diverge from the national housing story, for better and for worse. Local sales are increasing while the national market slumps, but local prices are falling faster than the national average.
The region’s real estate narrative is also at odds with traditional market economics. The coexistence of shrinking supply, rising demand and falling prices has left analysts with a number of questions: How long can this frenzied sales pace —fueled by Latin American and cash investors’ appetite for discounted real estate — continue? With inventory shrinking rapidly, when will the strong sales activity translate into price stability and appreciation, as market economics dictate? How large is the “shadow inventory,” and how will those unlisted bank-owned homes affect the recovery?

South Florida real estate paradox: High volume cuts inventory but prices stay low - Real Estate News - MiamiHerald.com

HUD, NeighborWorks Roll Out Emergency Program for Unemployed

2011-06-21T19:21:00.001-07:00

06/20/2011 By: Carrie Bay

Lost income from unemployment has left many homeowners unable to make their mortgage payments and pushed them to the brink of default, some into foreclosure.

Housing analysts and economists have become especially vocal about the effect of extended periods of joblessness on mortgage performance. The average duration of unemployment was 40 weeks in May, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
On Monday, HUD and NeighborWorks America announced the roll-out of the Emergency Homeowners’ Loan Program (EHLP) to 27 states across the country and Puerto Rico.
The program will assist homeowners who have experienced a reduction in income and are at risk of foreclosure due to involuntary unemployment, underemployment, or a medical condition.
Under EHLP program guidelines, eligible homeowners can qualify for an interest free, deferred payment “bridge” loan which pays a portion of their monthly mortgage for up to two years, or up to $50,000, whichever comes first.
Congress provided $1 billion dollars to HUD, as part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, to implement EHLP. A total of 32 states and Puerto Rico have been slated to receive funds to help unemployed homeowners in their communities.
In April, HUD deployed an initial round of funding, totaling $198 million, to five states that are administering EHLP directly: Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Maryland, and Pennsylvania.
The balance awarded under the program — $802 million – is being deployed among the remaining 27 states and Puerto Rico, where EHLP will be administered by NeighborWorks.
The remaining states include: Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Hawaii, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
EHLP will pay a portion of an approved applicant’s monthly mortgage, including missed payments, past due charges, taxes, insurance, and attorney fees.
There’s a rather short window for the program, so Eileen Fitzgerald, NeighborWorks CEO, is encouraging homeowners to apply now in order to find out if they qualify for this new mortgage assistance program.
Documentation for pre-applicant eligibility screening must be submitted to a participating EHLP agency by July 22, 2011. The homeowner application period will not begin until late July 2011.
HUD says EHLP is expected to aid up to 30,000 distressed borrowers, with an average bridge loan of approximately $35,000.
Additional details on the program are available on NeighborWorks’ website, along with a searchable database of the EHLP housing counseling agencies serving specific communities.
EHLP is a complement to the Hardest Hit Fund which makes available $7.6 billion to 18 states and the District of Columbia where housing markets have been acutely impacted by unemployment and falling property values. HUD says with Monday’s EHLP launch, mortgage assistance is now available for unemployed and underemployed homeowners in every state.
“Through the Emergency Homeowners’ Loan Program the Obama administration is continuing our strong commitment to help keep families in their homes during tough economic times,” said HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan.
The U.S. House of Representatives voted to pull the plug on EHLP in March, faulting the program as “excessive government spending” at a time when the nation itself has hit its debt ceiling and a fierce tug-of-war is underway in Washington over the federal budget and growing deficit.
The House-approved bill to terminate the program, as well as three others to end federal housing initiatives, never made it out of the House to the Senate. The White House vowed to veto all measures had they made it that far.
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HUD, NeighborWorks Roll Out Emergency Program for Unemployed

Happy graduation! Here’s your new home

2011-06-21T18:30:00.001-07:00

Happy graduation! Here’s your new home

NEW YORK – June 21, 2011 – In the last year, more parents have been shopping for apartments or condos to give to their children, real estate brokers report. These parents want to take advantage of dropping real estate prices and low interest rates while also viewing the purchase as an investment, brokers say.
In New York, these lavish real estate gifts – many which serve as graduation presents – are often studios or small one-bedroom apartments.

“The parents see it as a long-term investment and a good place to park their money,” Barry Silverman, an executive vice president of Halstead Property, told The New York Times.

As for how the “gift” of real estate is structured, some parents buy it as a gift for their children and take advantage of tax gift exclusions, others buy it as an investment property and retain ownership, and some are buying it through a family trust or joint ownership. In some cases, the parents don’t even live in the city but are buying the apartment for themselves so when the child decides to move on, they can move in.
Richard Koenigsberg, a certified public accountant, says it’s a good time to be purchasing property as a gift because of some tax exclusions on gifts.

“We are in a remarkable period of time at the moment,” Koenigsberg says. The tax exclusion on gifts and estates has increased to $5 million from $1 million until the end of 2012. In other words, a parent can give a child as much as $5 million tax-free.

“It’s a big opportunity for parents who might want to help their children,” Koenigsberg says.
Source: “The Gift Apartment from Mom and Dad,” The New York Times (June 17, 2011)
© Copyright 2011 INFORMATION, INC. Bethesda, MD (301) 215-4688

Happy graduation! Here’s your new home

When the credit starts flowing again

2011-06-20T18:48:00.001-07:00

When the credit starts flowing again

NEW YORK – June 20, 2011 – A very different credit environment awaits Main Street businesses that seek to expand in the coming year or two, as economic growth gradually picks up.

After the Wall Street financial meltdown, credit that had been relatively easy to obtain effectively dried up. For most businesses, that didn’t matter much; they had little desire to borrow while the economy was shrinking and demand for their products and services was on the wane. Those businesses that sought financing to help them weather the recession found higher collateral requirements and less favorable terms. And with lenders much more skittish about risks, many credit-seekers simply couldn’t qualify.

Now that consumer demand is starting to pick up, demand for credit is beginning to rise, and banks are generally prepared to offer financing to solid customers. Large banks are sitting on piles of cash and are eager to lend it out, while small institutions are looking to make up through more business lending what they have lost in volume in residential lending. That market is still woefully thin.

But the landscape that must be navigated by business owners seeking to expand and people planning start-ups is very different from the pre-crash terrain. Some previously well-used sources of credit are out of reach.
First, home equity loans are much tougher to get. With house values likely to drop an additional 2 percent this year, and lenders tightening up on creditworthiness, fewer business owners can tap them for funds. Already, the volume of home equity loans is down 5 percent this year.

Using credit cards or personal lines of credit to float a business start-up or operation is also hindered by regulators’ push for tighter standards and limits on such credit. Even turning to personal savings is harder; personal worth is down 21 percent from its pre-crisis peak.

Commercial loans, however, are easier to nail down than in recent years. About half of lenders say that they have recently loosened standards for large loans to businesses. A third of lenders say they’re looking more favorably on smaller loan requests.

They’re insisting, however, on rock-solid business plans that offer a clear picture of how the firm intends to repay the loan, its cash flow, as well as contingency plans. Business owners’ assets will matter less, and a sound business plan . . . more.

Business lending has begun to accelerate, reflecting a rise both in demand for financing from small firms ready to hire and buy new equipment and in banks’ willingness to take the risk. Small-business loan volume will grow 4 percent this year. Total business lending will be up 6 percent by year-end. Those are the first increases since 2008.

If you’re contemplating borrowing, the first places to look to are small banks. They’re eager to boost business lending to nearby firms. Most didn’t tighten lending standards as much as their big brethren, and they know the local scene, so they are more likely to be flexible on conditions.

But you may get a better reception at a large bank than you have in the past, as well. J.P. Morgan Chase, for example, is hiring 250 bankers who will focus exclusively on small-business concerns. The megabank intends to increase its lending to smalls by one-fifth. Already this year, Chase has upped its total business lending by 64 percent.

Meanwhile, there’s little danger that interest rates will rise swiftly, choking off demand. Although the Federal Reserve will tighten credit next year, lending rates will remain in a fairly comfortable zone for some time, with prime no higher than 4.5 percent by 2013.

Copyright © 2011 washingtonpost.com, Karen Mracek.

When the credit starts flowing again

Courts may reshape mortgage industry

2011-06-19T07:10:00.001-07:00

Courts may reshape mortgage industry
NEW YORK – June 17, 2011 – A New York appellate court last week ruled that a Reston-based company that electronically tracks and transfers millions of mortgages did not have the right to foreclosure on a property or assign a mortgage it doesn’t actually own. The decision came only days after an appeals court in California took a different view, ruling that the firm indeed has the power to act on behalf of lenders.
The two cases, like dozens of others already decided or playing out in courtrooms across the country, highlight a protracted legal wrestling match that could determine the validity of foreclosures already in the pipeline and shape the mortgage market for years to come.

The cases also underscore the uncertainty that continues to surround Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems (MERS), which has allowed the financial industry to transfer and reassign millions of mortgages quickly and cheaply since the 1990s. The company also has acted as a proxy for banks in many foreclosure proceedings.
The MERS business model has increasingly come under fire since revelations last fall of widespread problems in foreclosure filings around the country – including forged documents and lingering questions about who actually owns the homes being foreclosed. Embattled borrowers and their attorneys continue to challenge the legitimacy of MERS, which doesn’t actually own any of the 65 million loans in its vast registry.

Those challenges have had limited success so far. But as cases are reviewed on appeal, the rulings could call into question countless foreclosures that have taken place since the housing bust. Perhaps more significant, if judges ultimately deem the MERS model invalid, it could mean massive lawsuits against banks that improperly bundled and sold mortgages to investors and could hinder the private securitization market, making it tougher for average Americans to get home loans in the long run.

“We know that MERS is a problem; we don’t know exactly what that’s going to mean,” said Adam Levitin, a Georgetown University law professor. “We still don’t have really definitive law on any of the issues involved. It’s going to take awhile before we really know the answers.”

MERS, which was created by the mortgage industry in the 1990s and became a key component in the securitization process during the housing boom, has had a range of legal wins and losses.
“The law must not yield to expediency and the convenience of lending institutions,” Justice John M. Leventhal wrote in the New York appeals court ruling last week, adding, “Proper procedures must be followed to ensure the reliability of the chain of ownership.”

Earlier this year, a Michigan court of appeals ruled against MERS, saying state law requires a foreclosing party to have a stake in the loan itself, which the firm did not. Those decisions came after other blows to MERS from courts in Maine, Kansas and California. In March, the company asked banks and servicers to stop foreclosing in the MERS name.

These are “extra precautionary steps that we don’t think are legally necessary, but may reduce some of the administrative headaches,” Tom Deutsch, executive director of the American Securitization Forum, said of the decision to end MERS foreclosures. Still, he said, “ I just don’t think it’s possible for the court system to roll back” the current system. “If you don’t allow electronic transfers of mortgages, it takes us back to the stone ages.”
At the same time, the company has won numerous victories in scores of other courtrooms, from Hawaii to Virginia – a tally that it publishes in quarterly and monthly publications. In Minnesota, legislators passed a law stating that MERS explicitly has the right to undertake foreclosures. And the company has spent more than $1 million in lobbying in recent years to garner support among lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

“The court decisions have overwhelmingly leaned in favor of MERS and validating MERS’s business model,” said Janis Smith, vice president of corporate communications for MERSCORP, the firm’s parent company. “Overall, the record is pretty clearly established.”

The company is fighting a multi-front war. It recently received a subpoena from the Delaware attorney general seeking information about its practices. New York’s attorney general also has undertaken an investigation into all aspects of the mortgage lending and securitization business, an examination that likely will involve inquiries into how mortgages were assigned and bundled.

In addition to its legal fight, MERS faces competition from Delaware-based Global Debt Registry, which plans to launch an alternative registry service later this summer.

“The more we researched it, the more it seemed there was a need for an alternative [to MERS],” said Mark Parsells, the firm’s executive chairman. “We see the need for a proper alternative that alleviates any ambiguity” related to the ownership of the underlying mortgages.

Copyright © 2011 washingtonpost.com, Brady Dennis and Renae Merle.

Courts may reshape mortgage industry

5 Surprising Credit Report Errors You Must Fix

2011-06-17T04:44:00.001-07:00

In a recent study, 19 percent of American consumers who reported finding an error in their credit reports opted not to dispute the error, even when they were offered $5 to file the dispute! Why not? Well, some said they thought the error was too minor to impact their score, while others said the dispute process seemed too difficult to tackle.
The fact is, when you’re trying to qualify for a home loan, some of the items on your credit report that can pose a threat to your home finance plans might surprise you. Here are 5 surprising credit report entries you absolutely must fix, especially when you are in the process of buying or refinancing a home.
1.     Account balances you recently paid down or off. If you’ve just finished paying a bill down or off, you might not dispute the elevated balance that remains on your credit report because it’s not actually an error, per se. But the whole point of paying the balance down was to bring down your credit utilization ratio, which is a heavily weighted factor in your overall credit score.
Correcting the actual balances of your outstanding bills downward to account for your recent pay-down efforts poses such a large potential improvement impact for your credit score that it might even be worth paying your mortgage professional the $30 to $50 it will cost for them to initiate a Rapid Rescore, which can update your reports to reflect your slimmed-down balances in about 72 hours, compared with the 30 to 60 days you’d expect to wait to see results from a traditional dispute or update.
2.     Incorrect former addresses. Of the 19 percent of consumers who spotted an error on their report in the study, nearly 40 percent of those errors were in what the credit bureaus call “header data," things like the consumer's previous street address. Many elected not to dispute these sorts of line items because the error doesn't seem like it would impact their credit score. While an inaccurate address might not have much to do with your score, it can still wave a red flag, signaling issues that can foul-up your mortgage application.
A misspelling in an otherwise correct street name should not cause you grave concern. But if the previous addresses listed are in the wrong city or state, or otherwise come out of nowhere, they might signal that someone has used your name and/or social security number to obtain credit at a different address. Credit card fraud and identity theft are difficult to unravel when you’re not seeking credit; they are much more complicated to resolve when the credit stakes are high and the underwriter as picky as they are in the course of applying for a mortgage.
Also, current and previous addresses that conflict with where you’ve told the lender you live(d) can raise suspicion that you might be buying a second or rental home, rather than the owner-occupied home you say you’re trying to buy; that can provoke a lender to demand that you ante up more down payment dough, make you jump through greater hoops to prove your true address or even stop you from qualifying for the loan altogether.
3.     Bills that were never yours in the first place. As with completely bizarre former addresses, accounts listed on your credit report that you never opened in the first place can be a red flag that tips you to the fact that someone else might have stolen your identity and opened a credit card or account in your name. If you find one of these items on one credit bureau report, but it’s currently closed or has a zero balance, you might be tempted to let it slide, thinking it can’t move the needle on your credit score. In reality, though, if someone is using your identity to obtain credit and you fail to dispute that the bills belong to you, they might continue to use it, which can cause you real problems. Of course, if the bills weren’t paid on time or have been placed in collection, disputing the accounts’ presence on your credit report is a must.
If they were paid on time every time, though, the analysis might be different. Unfortunately, instituting a fraud-based credit freeze or fraud alert on your credit reports at the same time as you’re applying for a mortgage can complicate your own loan qualification process significantly. If you find yourself in this situation, carefully scrutinize the rest of your report and the credit reports you receive from the other bureaus to detect whether other fraudulent accounts exist, then consult with your mortgage professional on exactly when and how you should go about disputing the accounts which weren’t actually yours.
4.     Limits listed as lower than they really are. As with closed accounts that were never yours in the first place, accounts that are listed on your credit report as having limits that are lower than they really are might seem like a battle not worth fighting. But the fact is that only two inputs go into the credit utilization ratio that comprises about 30 percent of your FICO score: how much credit you have available, and how much credit you have used. So, if you have account balances that show up on your credit reports as lower than they actually are (i.e., that you have less credit available to use), that inaccuracy can skew your credit score and screw up your mortgage qualifying efforts. Big time.
5.    Derogatory items that should have aged off. Very few of us are perfect, and you might have worked hard to pay your bills on time in an effort to overcome a credit ding from back in the days. Although the impact a derogatory item has on your credit score wanes over time, it’s still your right (and your responsibility) to make sure negative items disappear from your credit report when they are supposed to – that’s 7 years for a late payment, 10 years for a bankruptcy. If you are still seeing credit dings on your report after more than the relevant time frame has elapsed, dispute them and claim the rehabbed credit (and score) you’ve since earned.
It’s not very common that credit report disputes cause dramatic changes in credit score, but again, many borrowers aren’t disputing these sorts of items they don’t realize could make a difference in their homebuying or refinancing prospect.
Beyond that, if you’re close to a credit tier cutoff, like 620-640 or 740-760, depending on your loan type, even a few points’ difference can be the difference in qualifying for a home or not, or paying a higher mortgage interest rate for the life of your loan. For these reasons, it behooves every potential borrower to be proactive in spotting and correcting these 5 must-dispute errors.

5 Surprising Credit Report Errors You Must Fix

Save Money, Save Energy: Ways to Make Your Home More Energy Efficient -

2011-06-16T19:00:00.001-07:00

Posted by Darren Ryan

What does “saving energy” really mean? We all get hit with tons of different energy conservation messages from all over the place, but that gets confusing really fast. Saving energy means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. We’re going to give you the facts to help you define what it means to you.
So what’s the best way for you and me to save energy and money? Over the next few weeks, we’ll be helping you understand the impact of how making some simple changes can put some extra cash in your wallet and we’ll help you figure out what you need to make your home more energy efficient.
We’ll also help you create a solid plan that works for YOU and YOUR home, not someone else’s and we’ll be sharing information about saving on your budget too with New Lower Prices plus a huge selection of EnergyStar and WaterSense products to help you get it done right.
October is Energy Savings month here at Home Depot which means that now, the whole month of October and throughout the fall we will be sharing even more great ideas, plans and new ways to save energy the right way. Of course along the way we will find ways to save you money on the front-end and long-term too.
To get you started, check out this PDF that shows you how you make some really simple and affordable changes that can save you about $745 this year!
Here are some great articles and helpful hints on making your home more energy efficient and affordable to run:

Quick Facts about LED Light Bulbs
Blue Light, Yellow Light, Clear Light…GO!
5 Great Reasons To Bring Home ENERGY STAR® Rated Products
Conserve: Evaluate Your Home’s Energy Efficiency for Free and Start Saving
Save Money and Maximize Your Home’s Energy Efficiency: Heating and Cooling Q&A’s
Prepare and Maintain: Fall Home Maintenance Checklist
Prepare and Maintain: More Fall Home Maintenance Tips
Fall Water Conservation: Rain Barrels Can Help Your Autumn Gardens Grow
Fall…The Best Time for Planting Trees and Shrubs
Sustainable Gardening: Composting Made Easy
Help for Finding the Right Air Conditioner for Your Home
Cool It Down: Tips For Cooling (and Heating) Your Home Efficiently
Advice for Upgrading Your Appliances

Save Money, Save Energy: Ways to Make Your Home More Energy Efficient - The Apron Blog by Home Depot – tips, ideas, products and inspiration for your DIY projects and home improvement

Fannie Mae extends sales incentives

2011-06-15T05:21:00.001-07:00

Fannie Mae extends sales incentives

WASHINGTON – June 14, 2011 – Fannie Mae extended incentives to encourage sales of HomePath REO properties to owner occupants. Now through Oct. 31, qualified buyers and selling agents can receive financial incentives on sales of HomePath properties, which can be found at www.homepath.com. The incentives originally would have ended June 30, 2011, and are available on sales to buyers who will reside in the home as their primary residence.

“Supporting homeownership and stabilizing neighborhoods are critical to helping the housing market recover,” said Ed Neill, senior vice president for credit loss management at Fannie Mae. “Our previous incentives have been effective in securing owner-occupants for these properties. By encouraging homebuyers who will make these properties their long-term home, these expanded incentives will help to stabilize communities.”
The expanded incentives offer qualified homebuyers up to 3.5 percent of the final sales price to use towards closing costs. In addition, selling agents representing the owner-occupant buyer can now receive a $1,200 bonus, but the incentive must be requested in the initial offer. Eligible initial offers must be submitted on or after June 14, 2011, and close by Oct. 31, 2011. Investor sales are not eligible.

HomePath properties may also be eligible for HomePath Mortgage and HomePath Renovation Mortgage financing, which offers homebuyers an opportunity to purchase with as little as 3 percent down.
© 2011 Florida Realtors®

Fannie Mae extends sales incentives

Who do you know right now that is renting

2011-06-14T04:59:00.000-07:00

Who do you know right now that is renting? With so many opportunities for first-time home buyers, everyone who is renting should at least explore what opportunities may be available. Sellers are now helping buyers with down payments, buying down rates, concessions, and much more! Who do you know that might want to learn more?

The real estate market changes quickly, so don't let your friends miss out on this fantastic opportunity. Email or call me today with the names and contact information of people I may be able to help.

Meyling Calero
RMG Realty Group Inc.
Lic. Real Estate Sales Associate
Short Sale Specialist
305-771-5154
MeylingCalero@aol.com
www.MeylingRealEstate.com
2011 Women's Council of Realtors VP of Membership
2010 Women's Council of Realtors Secretary
2009 Women's Council of Realtors Treasurer
2008 Women's Council of Realtors Ways and Means Chair

For more information on your Real Estate needs or concerns, contact Meyling at MeylingCalero@aol.com or Visit www.MeylingRealEstate.com

2011-06-13T16:43:00.000-07:00

LAS VEGAS – June 13, 2011 – Dayna and Scott Merritt ask themselves almost every day if they should keep paying their mortgage.

Many other residents on their street, Helens Pouroff Avenue, stopped long ago. Since the 69 new homes on this street were sold in 2006, almost half the owners have defaulted on their mortgages. Most of the houses went into foreclosure, which helped drive prices down for others on the street.

The Merritts’ house has suffered a typical fate. The couple paid $385,000 for it in 2006. It’s now worth about $180,000, recent sales indicate, and Las Vegas prices are still falling.

The Merritts are torn between continuing to sink money into a house that may never regain its value or finding a way out. They have plenty of company. About 11 million U.S. homeowners are underwater on their mortgages, meaning they owe more on them than their homes are worth. Of those, 2 million are so deeply underwater that market researcher CoreLogic predicts their homes will go into foreclosure or distressed sales.

The risk that more of those homeowners will default threatens housing markets nationwide, says CoreLogic economist Sam Khater. What’s happened here does little to quell those fears.

Five years after the carnage began, those who walked from their Helens Pouroff homes say they’re recovering from financial ruin. Several say they’re considering buying homes again. But those still here have only seen values erode further. One by one, more consider an escape, which could mean walking away from their mortgage.

“We’ve stuck it out. But there’s been no ‘attaboy,’“ says Dayna Merritt, 43, a substitute teacher. “We’re paying on something that seems like it won’t work out for us.”

The threat of defaults driven by continued home price declines and a sputtering U.S. economy is particularly acute in Las Vegas, the foreclosure capital of the U.S. for more than four years.

Here, 66 percent of homeowners with a mortgage are underwater, compared with 23 percent nationwide. Almost one in four Nevadans who lost homes to foreclosure admitted in a survey that they walked away from their mortgages even though they could afford to pay, according to the Nevada Association of Realtors.

Defaulting on a mortgage can have dire consequences, including a 150-point drop in credit scores, tainted credit reports for up to 10 years if one goes bankrupt, lost access to credit, and higher costs for such things as insurance and new loans. In most states, lenders have years to try to collect losses suffered from foreclosures or other distressed home sales. That can lead to seized bank accounts and garnished wages, says Michele Johnson, CEO of Las Vegas Consumer Credit Counseling Service. People who abandon a mortgage will “live under a cloud” for years, she says.

Still, the grinding down of resolve to keep paying on deeply underwater homes is evident on Helens Pouroff, a straight, sun-baked street behind security gates where stucco homes are separated by a few feet of rock garden and small changes in floor plans.

Last year, Helens Pouroff saw just one new notice of default after 17 were filed in 2009, according to public records tracked by researcher ForeclosureRadar. This year, four homeowners who bought in 2006 have defaulted, public records show. “There’s two types of people,” says Dave Peterson, 38, a former Helens Pouroff homeowner. “People who see it coming and do something right away, and people who try to hold on until something forces them to let go.”

A ‘toxic asset’

Peterson let go fairly early. He defaulted on his Helens Pouroff home in late 2008.

Like others, the former real estate agent bought in the up-and-coming Las Vegas suburb expecting prices to continue to sizzle. Instead, they peaked the month he bought and then tanked, as did Peterson’s income. “I looked at our expenses like a corporation looks at their expenses, and the (house) was a toxic asset,” Peterson says.

Peterson declared bankruptcy in 2009 and moved out of his $353,000 Helens Pouroff home. He loved the house, 1,800-square-feet with a tile courtyard, but not the $3,000-a-month mortgage for an asset declining in value.

Peterson suffered the pains of bankruptcy. His father, a Wyoming man who bought one house in his lifetime, thought the mortgage default was “irresponsible,” Peterson says. He searched six weeks to find a rental for his wife and new baby as Las Vegas landlords scoffed at his credit rating, which fell to the 500s from the respectable 700s.

Now, almost two years out of bankruptcy, Peterson’s credit score is back to 680, he says. That’s about 60 points below the level needed to get the best pricing on home loans.

Without a $3,000-a-month mortgage to worry about, the couple pays $1,350 a month for a rented townhouse in a nicer neighborhood.

Instead of running up credit card debt to stretch income mainly devoted to paying their mortgage, Peterson, who now works in health care sales, and his wife, Gabby, save one of four paychecks they earn each month.

The couple hopes to buy a house in their neighborhood next year. Peterson could be eligible for a home loan through the Veterans Administration. To get a conventional loan, he’d probably have to wait another year, because of his bankruptcy.

“I think we’re in a good place now,” Peterson says. To have stayed on Helens Pouroff, he says, “would’ve felt like prison.”

Numbers told the story

Tamara Lemmon, a 33-year-old Internet marketing entrepreneur, feels the same way.

She bought the same month as Peterson but defaulted months earlier, after running through savings and losing an advertising job. A former professional poker player who’s good with numbers, Lemmon sat with a spreadsheet in 2008 and calculated how long it might be before her home again would be worth what she paid for it 18 months before. “It was like 20 years,” she says.

Lemmon filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection in 2008, listing $1.4 million in real estate debt, including the Helens Pouroff house and three rental properties. They all went back to the banks. Lemmon remarried and moved to Utah. She could be eligible for a home loan this summer through the Federal Housing Administration.

Not paying her previous debts “still bugs me,” Lemmon says. But leaving Helens Pouroff “was absolutely the best financial decision.”

Because they filed for bankruptcy, their mortgage debts were erased and Peterson and Lemmon run no risk that they’ll be hunted down by lenders for losses suffered on their homes.

In most states, including Nevada, mortgage lenders have years to go after debtors who don’t file for bankruptcy to try to recoup losses from foreclosures or short sales. A short sale is when lenders and borrowers agree to sell a house for less than what’s owed.

Nationwide, lenders have not been aggressive in pursuing foreclosure losses on a broad basis, real estate attorneys say. But they still have time, and many will likely sell such cases to debt collection agencies, says Florida foreclosure defense attorney Roy Oppenheim. “I don’t think we’ve seen the end of this yet,” he says.

Lemmon opted for bankruptcy to avoid such a cloud. “I didn’t want to feel I was looking over my shoulder. I just wanted closure,” she says. One regret in letting the house go?

“That I didn’t do it sooner,” she says.

Money ‘we’ll never see again’

Busting out was easier for Peterson and Lemmon than for others. Like 31 of the 69 original Helens Pouroff buyers, Peterson put down no money, taking advantage of the lending standards of the time. Lemmon put about 6 percent down.

Those with minimal downpayments have been more likely to default, USA TODAY found in analyzing ForeclosureRadar data.

Of the homeowners who put less than $100 down to buy, about half defaulted on the mortgage, records indicate. Of those who put more than $69,000 down, about 40 percent defaulted. The Helens Pouroff homes, in 2006, ranged from $322,000 to almost $470,000, depending on size.

Belinda and William Haag were one of the couples who put a big chunk down, $82,000 that “we’ll never see again,” says Belinda Haag, 53.

The couple, both federal government contractors, have failed to get their Helens Pouroff loan modified and still owe $344,000 on a home they estimate might sell for $180,000. They pay $2,044 a month on the mortgage. They could rent a similar house in the same area for about $1,000 a month, Haag says.

After paying for five years, the Haags expect to put their home on the market this summer. They’re hoping for a short sale, which can be less damaging to credit ratings than a foreclosure. If the bank doesn’t agree to a short sale, “We walk,” Haag says. “We’re going to go back to renting and will put money in our 401(k)s.”

Rachael, 41, and Joseph Stewart, 46, likewise have run out of patience with their Helens Pouroff mortgage. They recently stopped paying and are hoping their lenders alter their loan.

The Stewarts, who paid top dollar for their home, have watched one house after another go into foreclosure. They’ve picked up trash and plucked weeds in abandoned front yards. The couple also altered their lifestyle as the recession hammered Joseph’s chiropractor practice.

Rachael Stewart, a high school chemistry teacher, now shops at T.J.Maxx and Target, not Dillard’s. She gets her hair cut every nine weeks, not every six. The couple sold their Mini Cooper.

“I took a coupon class,” she says. “I used to throw those things away.”

The last straw for the Stewarts came a few months ago when a law enforcement official showed up at their door, looking for a new neighbor who rents a similar house for far less than what the Stewarts pay to own, Stewart says. When the Stewarts bought in 2006, the development barred rentals. “I’m just irritated,” she says. “Everybody else gets a break. I’ve never stopped paying my bills before,” she says.

The Stewarts’ loan was modified last year to run 40 years instead of 30. Given continued price drops, they want more concessions. If they don’t get them, “We could buy a house like this for half as much,” Stewart says, perched at the long granite counter in her kitchen. “We thought we’d raise our kids here. But it is just a house.”

The Stewarts live across the street from their friends, the Merritts. The Merritts started the loan-modification process in 2009. They never finished as reports of others’ failed attempts flew through the neighborhood and the news media.

The Merritts also made a big downpayment, almost $80,000, when they bought in 2006.

Now, Scott Merritt’s father, a retired Marine, sends him a spreadsheet each month detailing how long it will take the couple to climb out of the hole not even considering getting their $80,000 back. The latest estimate: 2020.

“He says, ‘Walk away; walk away,’“ says Scott Merritt, 40. “But what then?”

Merritt has searched for nearby rentals so his children could stay in the same schools or other good ones. There isn’t much to rent in those neighborhoods, he says. Merritt, who moved a lot as a kid, wants more stability for his children, ages 8 and 10. The couple have good credit, a sense of obligation for their debts and distaste for the uncertainty of moving. They bought the home knowing they wouldn’t be able to save early on. But Dayna was pursuing a master’s degree, which she completed to be a school counselor. Jobs are now scarce, and the Merritts still can’t save.

Scott Merritt’s income, as a tipped banquet server at Caesars Palace, fell 10 percent in recent years. The family now goes to the park, for free, not the movies. Last year, instead of flying to San Antonio for vacation, they drove. Twenty hours.

The Merritts also are five years closer to college bills and retirement than when they bought the home. If the Stewarts leave the street, there’s one less reason to stay. “Every month,” Dayna Merritt says, “I ask myself, ‘Why are we paying this?’“

© Copyright 2011 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc., Julie Schmit.

Meyling Calero
RMG Realty Group Inc.
Lic. Real Estate Sales Associate
Short Sale Specialist
MeylingCalero@aol.com
www.MeylingRealEstate.com
2011 Women's Council of Realtors VP of Membership
2010 Women's Council of Realtors Secretary
2009 Women's Council of Realtors Treasurer
2008 Women's Council of Realtors Ways and Means Chair
For more information on your Real Estate needs or concerns, contact Meyling at MeylingCalero@aol.com or Visit www.MeylingRealEstate.com

Lawyers get more time to finish foreclosures

2011-06-09T18:08:00.001-07:00

Lawyers get more time to finish foreclosures
PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. – June 9, 2011 – Federal mortgage giant Fannie Mae more than doubled the amount of time Florida attorneys have to complete a foreclosure, acknowledging the reality of the state’s overwhelmed court system and problems with foreclosure paperwork.

Law firms now have 450 days (about 15 months), up from 185 (six months), to move a foreclosure from the first referral to an attorney to a foreclosure auction before fines can be levied.
As of the end of 2010, Fannie Mae had $184 billion in unpaid home loan principal in Florida with a seriously delinquent rate of 12 percent.

According to the new deadlines announced Monday, New York City has the longest time frame to complete a foreclosure at 570 days. Florida and New Jersey are tied for the second longest.Monday’s change is the second time in less than a year that Fannie Mae has adjusted Florida’s foreclosure deadline. It was last increased in August, jumping from 150 days to 185.

“We review them periodically and come up with a timeframe that best reflects the existing conditions in that state,” Fannie Mae spokeswoman Amy Bonitatibus said.If law firms don’t meet the time frames, they can be fined on a case-by-case basis and depending on the amount remaining on the loan in foreclosure.

Whether the longer deadline will have any impact in Florida remains to be seen. RealtyTrac, a California-based company that monitors foreclosures, estimated last month that the average Florida foreclosure takes 619 days from the initial court filing to bank repossession.

“They can’t get foreclosures done in 185 days and I don’t think they can get them done in 450 right now,” said Boca Raton-based foreclosure defense attorney Ron Kaniuk. “They can tell the bank attorneys whatever they want, but without funding, the courts are going to grind to a slow, pathetic halt.”

Florida lawmakers decided against extending a one-time $6 million fund this year to hire more judges, case managers and clerical assistants to clear the state’s foreclosure backlog.

The additional help allowed the courts to process 16,972 Palm Beach County cases between June 2010 and February of this year, reducing a backlog of 46,438 cases to 29,466. Statewide, the 462,339-case backlog in June 2010 was reduced by 139,615 cases.

Palm Beach County Chief Judge Peter Blanc is working on a new schedule for his judges to manage the foreclosure cases. He had an additional $640,000 to work with from last year’s extra stipend, which runs out at the end of the fiscal year June 30.“We’ll be able to handle it, but I think it will be a little slower,” Blanc said about the workload.

Palm Beach County is also still sorting through an estimated 9,000 foreclosure cases previously handled by the Plantation-based Law Offices of David J. Stern.The company collapsed after being fired by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the fall. The two entities cut ties with the firm following the announcement of an investigation by the Florida attorney general’s office and allegations of wrongdoing.

Former Stern employees interviewed by attorney general investigators mentioned the intense pressure to meet lender foreclosure deadlines. One paralegal said screaming matches would erupt between Stern and a top firm employee about the speed at which foreclosures were being processed.

Attorney Gerald Richman, who is representing the Boca Raton-based foreclosure law firm Shapiro & Fishman, said the extended foreclosure deadline may take some of the pressure off processing files quickly.
But he added that a tight timeline “doesn’t justify anyone cutting corners.”

Copyright © 2011 The Palm Beach Post, Fla., Kimberly Miller. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Lawyers get more time to finish foreclosures

The Real Deal | South Florida Real Estate News

2011-06-07T05:35:00.001-07:00

Times changing for residential market
June 06, 2011 12:00PM

Even those overbidding for South Florida condos are losing out to other buyers. Some realtors even say they are seeing upsurges in prices in South Florida. "What I'm seeing on the streets is, prices are going up," said Melanie Hyer of Keller Williams Realty. "It's still a buyer's market, but the market is stabilizing." In nine separate neighborhoods, buyers are paying more than the asking price, including in Miami-Dade County and Broward. The cities include Homestead, Medley and Miami Gardens in Miami-Dade, along with Coconut Creek in Broward. See more in the video above. [NBC Miami]

The Real Deal | South Florida Real Estate News

P.S You should follow Meyling obn Facebook...

Meyling Calero
RMG Realty Group Inc.
Lic. Real Estate Sales Associate
Short Sale Specialist
MeylingCalero@aol.com
http://www.meylingrealestate.com/
2011 Women's Council of Realtors VP of Membership
2010 Women's Council of Realtors Secretary
2009 Women's Council of Realtors Treasurer
2008 Women's Council of Realtors Ways and Means Chair

For more information on your Real Estate needs or concerns, contact Meyling at MeylingCalero@aol.com or Visit www.MeylingRealEstate.com

How to buy and sell a home in today’s market

2011-06-07T05:30:00.000-07:00

By: Cynthia Barron the Barron Benson Team

Almost every day I find myself in a conversation with someone who asks: “How’s the real estate market?” My answer, frankly, is always the same: “I’m glad you asked because it’s a great time to buy or sell a home!” Lately, that answer has been met by surprise, even shock!

After I tell that individual why it’s a great time to be in real estate, they realize the truth: as long as you are properly represented by a real estate agent who fully understands the current market, and you’re prepared to follow their advice, your experience will be a successful one!

So back to the original question: what can you do to successfully buy or sell a home in today’s market?

The best thing you can do is realize is that the market has changed.

A lot has happened since the boom days. We’ve seen a recession, which included a rise in unemployment, a drop in consumerism, and an entire realignment of the real estate and mortgage industries. Distressed properties (Foreclosure, Short Sale and Real Estate Owned or REO) dominated many local markets and clogged inventory, resulting in poorly priced homes sitting on the market for longer than expected.

Buyers gained additional negotiating powers, and sellers have been creative about concessions in order to sell faster. While it’s not necessarily the right time to buy for everyone, I still find homeowners, or those seeking to own a home, are confusing market conditions with market opportunities. The market is what you make of it and how you approach the process of buying or selling a home.

Buying a home in 2011

Buying a home is one of the biggest investments many families make, and you shouldn’t just jump into without considering a few factors:

Know your purchasing power. Lenders have wisened upsince the days when they were handing out loans without proof of income. Before you even start your home search today you should get pre-approved by a trusted lending professional.

Find a knowledgeable agent. In today’s market, you must hire someone who is knowledgeable, professional and ready to negotiate on your behalf. Interview a few agents before you decide, ask them what services they provide as a buyers agent, and what you can expect when you work with them exclusively.

Give it time. There are a lot of homes on the market that could potentially meet your needs as a buyer and candidly, this market is giving buyers a little leeway during the home search. Spend time thinking about how you felt in house, look to see if it truly meets your needs, and always consider its value in the future.

Selling a home in 2011

Although we’re still in a buyer’s market, as a seller you can take appropriate actions to position youself for home selling success.

Find your motivation. Why do you want or need to sell? And how badly — how important is it to you? What would it take to make selling make sense?

Price it right. What does that really mean? Here’s the truth. Unfortunately, many sellers (who were buyers back in the boom days) are in trouble or are in a financially distressing situation. If that’s you, and you’re not to the point of filing for foreclosure, you most likely want to avoid losing any more money on the house and as a result, you’re going to want to price it high from the beginning which would be a mistake. The higher you price it from the beginning, the longer it sits on the market. The longer it sits on the market, the less likely it will sell, and you’ll most likely end up making larger and more painful reduction down the road.

Follow your agents’ advice. You are emotionally invested in this home and the money that you originally put into buying it. Your agent acts as an outsider, and is knowledgeable about buyers’ current behaviors and what homes are really selling for in your area.

HOA 101 – Understanding your Home Owners AssociationAre you currently considering a home that requires you to become a member of their Homeowners Association? As a member of your neighborhood’s HOA, you are obligated to pay fees to support management and maintenance. There are obvious pros and cons to living in a neighborhood with an HOA.
Pros to an HOA

May maintain and pay for the upkeep of certain community amenities, including tennis courts, pools, neighborhood parks, golf courses and playgrounds.

Helps to Preserve Property Values. Some HOAs may exercise some standards for how the outside of a home should look, including driveways, keeping garage doors closed, or limiting signs in yards. These standards are meant to keep the neighborhood looking good to keep everyone’s home prices up while luring more buyers to the community.

May mediate disputes between residents. Should there be any animosity towards neighbors, the HOA can step in as an objective third-party and make a decision for both parties.
Cons to an HOA

Will add extra cost to your monthly payments. HOA fees vary from community to community and it’s important to add the fee to your monthly mortgage payment so that you can fit it into your overall budget. HOAs are not tax deductible.

Can sometimes feel like “Big Brother” is watching over you making sure your grass is mowed, landscaping is kept up and has appropriate flowers and have a qualified breed of dog..

May ask to screen and approve another occupant of your home if you decide to rent your home to outside individuals putting the renter’s move-in time on hold.

Can raise the dues at any time for any number of reasons, such as assessments, lawsuits, cost of living, or simply because other homeowners aren’t paying. This isn’t common; however, it is a possibility to consider.

Can evict you or foreclose on your home if you do not pay the dues on time and accumulate back fees and additional fines.

If you are considering buying a home with a HOA, ask to get a copy of the rules, regulations, and bylaws before you sign the purchase agreement, or make your offer contingent upon your receipt and acceptance of the rules. When managed well, an HOA can offer homeowners amenities that are well worth the dues - and is absolutely worth looking into if you’re in the market for a home.

Meyling Calero
RMG Realty Group Inc.
Lic. Real Estate Sales Associate
Short Sale Specialist
MeylingCalero@aol.com
http://www.meylingrealestate.com/
2011 Women's Council of Realtors VP of Membership
2010 Women's Council of Realtors Secretary
2009 Women's Council of Realtors Treasurer
2008 Women's Council of Realtors Ways and Means Chair

For more information on your Real Estate needs or concerns, contact Meyling at MeylingCalero@aol.com or Visit www.MeylingRealEstate.com

5 Need-to-Knows Before You Move Into the Neighborhood

2011-06-07T04:45:00.001-07:00

By Tara-Nicholle Nelson | Broker in San Francisco, CA

Buying a home can feel like the most intense research project ever - to make a smart buy, you’ve got to get educated about mortgages, learn how to read a contract, do a deep dive into property condition issues or homeowner’s associations and pay attention to what’s going on in the economic news and the real estate market. But there’s at least one more area wise buyers don’t neglect: neighborhood research.
We know, at a gut level, what kind of neighborhoods we like - tree-lined streets, convenient shops, etc. and so forth. But what specific details should you investigate before you buy or move into an area? Here are 5 items you definitely need-to-know before you move into a neighborhood:

1.       Details on Shady Dealings. Most of us think we know which sides of the railroad tracks, so to speak, have high crime rates and which are supposedly safe. But before you buy a home or move into a neighborhood, it behooves you to actually do the research and see whether or not your beliefs are accurate. Check out the Megan’s Law databases to see where registered sex offenders may live, especially if you have young children or other reasons to be particularly worried. Google your address, which might pop up details such as whether your intended home has ever been a meth lab, among other things.

And, whatever you do, don’t forget to tap into Trulia’s new Crime Maps – in a number of metro areas (which will be constantly expanding), you can view uber-detailed (and sometimes surprising!) crime data that is uber-relevant to you. If you’re trying to decide between two homes in different parts of town, you can even toggle back and forth between the neighborhoods to compare them! For example, some neighborhoods have a spike in car break-ins after people leave for work. Or maybe one side of your street-to-be has a significantly higher rate of violent crimes than the other.

That’s the kind of thing you should find out before you move in, don’t cha think?

2.       How Recession-Resistant it is. Let’s face facts: some neighborhoods, cities and states have fared better than others over the course of the recession. An area’s proximity to job opportunities, saturation with troubled subprime loans and the amount of housing supply (vs. demand) all have something to do with whether prices plummeted or have held up over the last few years.

Sometimes, a neighborhood’s recession-proofness (or -proneness) is obvious: if the street on which you’re house hunting is riddled with ‘For Sale’ signs (and foreclosure riders on top of them), or you know for a fact that the home you’re buying is a short sale for which the sellers paid double your price just 5 years ago, you might be in an area that has been hard hit. Also, if your neighborhood has a sky-high rate of price reductions or it is much less expensive to buy than to rent a home in your area, these are other indicators that the recession might have hit your district pretty hard.

The fact of the matter is, some of the hardest hit neighborhoods are where the best deals are to be found, so I’m not necessarily suggesting that you shy away from buying in such an area. But do know that the harder hit areas might take longer to see an uptick in home values, too, so the harder hit your neighborhood was by the real estate recession, the longer you should plan on staying put before you buy, to make sure you don’t end up needing to sell and stuck in an upside-down home. While a 5 to 7 year plan might make sense in an area where the real estate market has been pretty robust over the last few years, you might want to be okay with planning to hold your home upwards of 10 years before buying in a foreclosure-riddled area (and you might also want to make absolutely sure you’re very happy with the deal you’re getting).

On the flip side, the more recession-resistant your area has been, the more likely you are to encounter sellers with less flexibility on pricing or even, gasp!, multiple offers!

3.       The Neighborhood’s Flavor. Is the area you’re considering a hot spot for outdoor adventures and family events at the park, or chi chi restaurants and wine tastings at the museum? Find out by pulling up some listings on Trulia and scrolling down the see how others who have lived in the area have rated and reviewed it.

Also, take a look at NabeWise - it’s only available for about 10 large cities right now, but it’s got a super useful function where you can search by city and what’s important to you (like being in a trendy neighborhood, or one that’s got ample public transportation) and it’ll surface neighborhoods which might be a good fit for your values.Neighborhoods are even ranked based on prestige and how beautiful residents are (the latter of which I find fascinating - but more as a measure of where the raters’ heads are at than of anything you must include in your neighborhood fit equation!).

4. Where are the hot spots? Before you buy or move into an area, equip yourself with a knowledge of where all the stores, farmer’s markets, parks, restaurants and other hot spots your family will want to use are located vis-a-vis your home-to-be. (Hint: your local real estate agent is a fabulous source for this kind of information - they are especially gifted at knowing where the good food and shopping is!) Your Trulia Mobile App will alert you to nearby haunts that have Yelp! reviews; also, your neighbors-to-be can be a great source of this sort of information - knock on doors and ask for their recommendations.

It also makes sense to search the web for the various sorts of things your family is into, and your new neighborhood’s name. An internet search for running trails in my neighborhood is how I found out my house was just a couple of blocks away from a largely hidden lake we now visit regularly. Then, drive around and see what you can see - or find someone to drive for you. Once, when I moved to a new town, I marched myself onto a city bus, sat behind the driver, told them I was new in town and asked them to point out things they thought I needed to know. I got an hour long tour through three neighboring towns - for $1.25!

5. What the neighborhood looks and feels like at different times of day/different days of the week. Have you ever visited a Sunday afternoon open house when the sun was shining, birds were singing, and charming neighborhood rugrats were rolling their hoops up the street? (Okay - that was a century or two ago, but you get the gist.) Then, you come back a couple of weeks later for your inspections at dusk and find those same rugrats (or their parents!) spraying graffiti all over “your” garage, the neighbors’ underpants flapping on the line in the front yard and the other neighbors’ music blaring? File that under disappointing.

The nature of a neighborhoods changes - sometimes dramatically - before and after the sun goes down. Also, if you visit a home during the week or when it’s cold and rainy out, the street will undoubtedly be busier and noisier - more reflective of the extremes you should be aware of - on the weekend or when the weather is grand. So, before you buy, go see the place in sunlight and after dark, during the week and on the weekend. And, again, there’s nothing wrong with knocking on the neighbors’ doors, telling them you’re thinking of buying, and seeing what kind of insider information you can glean from them!

5 Need-to-Knows Before You Move Into the Neighborhood

P.S. Don't forget to follow Meyling on Twitter and facebook.

Fixed mortgage rates drops for 7th straight week

2011-06-04T05:53:00.001-07:00

Mortgage Rate Trend Index

only 7 percent of the industry experts believe mortgage rates will rise over the next week or so; 40 percent think rates will fall; and 53 percent believe they will remain relatively unchanged.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Fixed mortgage rates slid for the seventh consecutive week, but the lowest rates of the year have done little to lift the struggling housing market.

Freddie Mac says the average rate on the 30-year loan fell to 4.55 percent from 4.60 percent. The average rate on the 15-year fixed mortgage, a popular refinance option, slipped to 3.74 percent from 3.78 percent. Both are lows for the year.
Rates tend to track the yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which has dropped over fears that higher energy prices could slow economic growth this year.

Most people are unable to take advantage of the lowest mortgage rates because they can’t meet tougher lending requirements. And those who could afford to refinance likely did so last year, when rates fell to the lowest levels in decades.
Sales of new and previously occupied homes rose in April. But sales for well below healthy levels. Waves of foreclosures have pushed prices down. Many would-be buyers are holding off, worried that home prices have yet to hit bottom.
Home prices fell in the first three months of this year to the lowest levels since before the housing bust. Prices are expected to keep falling until the glut of foreclosures for sale is reduced, companies start hiring in greater force, banks ease lending rules and more people think it makes sense again to buy a house. In some markets, that could take years.

To calculate average mortgage rates, Freddie Mac collects rates from lenders across the country on Monday through Wednesday of each week. Rates often fluctuate significantly, even within a single day.The average rate on a five-year adjustable-rate mortgage stayed flat at 3.41 percent. The five-year adjustable rate loan hit 3.25 percent in April, the lowest rate on records dating back to 2005.The average rate on a one-year adjustable-rate loan rose slightly to 3.13 percent.

The rates do not include add-on fees, known as points. One point is equal to 1 percent of the total loan amount. The average fee for the 30-year fixed loan in Freddie Mac’s survey was 0.6 and it was 0.7 for the 15-year fixed loan. The average fee for the five-year ARM and the 1-year ARM was 0.6 point.
Copyright © 2011 The Associated Press, Derek Kravitz, AP real estate writer.

Fixed mortgage rates drops for 7th straight week

Harvard Study Warns of Rent Bubble | REALTOR® Association of the Greater Miami and the Beaches

2011-06-03T05:27:00.001-07:00

Submitted by Deborah Boza-Va... on 2 June 2011 - 4:53am

RISMEDIA, June 2, 2011— By Steve Cook - For renters, the national recovery could be very bad news. That warning came from the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies’ latest report on America’s rental housing. Rental markets are now tightening, with vacancy rates falling and rents climbing. With little new supply of multifamily units in the pipeline, rents could rise sharply as demand increases. Regardless, affordability is likely to deteriorate further over the next few years as persistently high unemployment limits renter income gains.

When job growth regains momentum, the number of renter households could climb quickly. Given the long lead times needed to develop new multifamily housing, a sharp increase in demand could quickly reduce vacancy rates and put upward pressure on rents. While this would be good news for owners and investors in rental housing, it would also fuel the intense affordability pressures, the study warns.

A variety of rental market indicators suggest that the worst repercussions from the recession may be over. While this is good news for most of us, especially property owners, the recovery may increase the rent pressures on households still struggling in an environment of sluggish job growth. The ongoing foreclosure crisis should continue to spur growth in the number of renter households as former owners switch to renting. Single-family home foreclosures will also add a steady flow of units to the rental market. The ability of renter households to occupy these homes will be an important factor in maintaining the stability of distressed neighborhoods hard hit by the foreclosure crisis.

Although there appears to be an excess supply of rental housing at present, this could change quickly as the economy recovers and household formation among younger adults returns to a more typical pace. An upsurge in demand could outstrip the available supply and push construction activity back up, the study says.

One of the most important questions going forward is whether mortgage financing will be available to fuel rental property purchases and investments. Even before the financial crisis, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were an important source of financing for both multifamily and investor-owned single family properties. And during the crisis, the GSEs—along with FHA—accounted for the vast majority of new financing. As Congress takes up debate about what, if any, role the GSEs should play in the mortgage markets, policymakers must consider the vital importance they have as a source of capital for rental housing

Harvard Study Warns of Rent Bubble | REALTOR® Association of the Greater Miami and the Beaches

Foreclosure homes starting to lose their appeal, data show

2011-06-03T04:59:00.001-07:00

By Joelle Embres | Agent in Parkland, FL

'Just reduced' real estate for sale sign on Valencia in the El Cid neighborhood just south of downtown West Palm Beach. (Scott Fisher, Sun Sentinel / October 16, 2008)
Sales of homes in some stage of foreclosure declined across South Florida during the first quarter, a result of the recent "robo signer" controversy and perhaps a changing sentiment among buyers, observers say. Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties posted 8,878 foreclosure sales in January, February and March - down 11 percent from the fourth quarter and 20 percent from a year ago, according to RealtyTrac Inc., an Irvine, Calif.-based foreclosure listing firm.

The robo signer furor led to foreclosure freezes last fall, and processing has only started to resume.
Another theory is that buyers aren't as enamored of houses and condominiums that have been repossessed, are in default or scheduled for auction.

Buying those bargain-priced properties can take months. Also, once-stubborn sellers of homes not in foreclosure are dropping their asking prices to better compete with distressed properties, real estate agents say.
"I've had three or four recent buyers who specifically didn't want to look at foreclosed properties," said Michael Citron, an agent in Parkland and Coconut Creek. "I do feel that buyers are starting to get the idea that a foreclosure or short sale might not always be the best deal."

Scott Agran, head of Lang Realty in Boca Raton, said he hasn't noticed a drop in demand for foreclosed homes. Rather, there are fewer sales because banks have been slow to put these distressed properties on the market.
"We've been waiting for 14 months for foreclosures to be released in bulk, and it just hasn't happened," he said.
In September, major lenders began suspending foreclosures as they investigated possible paperwork errors. Bank employees, called robo signers, admitted in depositions that they signed off on thousands of foreclosures without knowing the details of the cases.

Following the freezes, foreclosure sales in South Florida declined in the fourth quarter of last year compared with the same period of 2009, RealtyTrac said.

"The foreclosure process is seriously gummed up," said Mike Larson, a housing analyst with Weiss Research in Jupiter. "It's not uncommon for a year or two years to go by from the first payment default and the foreclosure sale."

Banks are sorting out the problems and proceeding with foreclosures, which will lead to more distressed home sales in the months ahead, analysts say.

The average sales price of a foreclosed home in South Florida was $129,617 during the first quarter, this is 32 percent less than the average price of a home that is not in the foreclosure process, RealtyTrac said.
Nearly four in 10 South Florida sales involved a foreclosure.

Meanwhile, there were 25,052 foreclosure sales in Florida during the first quarter, down from 36,624 a year ago. Foreclosures accounted for 32 percent of all sales statewide.

Nationally, foreclosure sales were off 36 percent from the first quarter of 2010.

While the drop in foreclosure-related sales is keeping prices from plummeting, it also is delaying the housing recovery, RealtyTrac said.

There still are plenty of troubled homes that will need new owners, said Daren Blomquist, a RealtyTrac spokesman.

"As long as we have these distressed properties hanging over the market, I don't think we'll see home prices substantively improve," he said.

By Paul Owers Sun Sentinel

Foreclosure homes starting to lose their appeal, data show

Federal program offers up to $18,000 in mortgage help

2011-05-27T04:45:00.001-07:00

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – May 26, 2011 – More than 10,000 unemployed and underemployed Florida homeowners have applied for federal money to help pay their mortgages and keep the roof over their heads since a new program kicked off April 18.

Not all 10,000 will qualify. But even if they all did, the federal Hardest Hit Fund program could help another 30,000 struggling homeowners in Florida alone, said Cecka Rose Green, communications director for the Florida Housing Finance Corp.
Eligible applicants could receive up to $18,000 from funds available through two Florida Hardest Hit programs. Providing that full amount to 40,000 people accounts for $720 million of Florida’s nearly $1.1 billion allocation. More homeowners than that will receive assistance from the fund through the program’s five-year lifespan, Green said.

The Unemployment Mortgage Assistance Program could make the bulk of participants’ mortgage payments directly to their loan servicers – a total of $12,000 worth of house payments or six months’ worth, whichever comes first. The program ends then, or when the participant finds a job that pays well enough for them to make their house payments independently, Green said.

Although the program directly pays the participant’s mortgage holder, that doesn’t mean that person is off the financial hook, Green said. A participant will still have to make a minimum monthly contribution payment toward their mortgage of $70, she said.

“We want a homeowner in this program to get accustomed to making a mortgage payment again,” she said. Another part of Florida Hardest Hit, the Mortgage Loan Reinstatement Payment program, will pay up to $6,000 of the past-due amount on a program participant’s mortgage.

Green said in a pilot program in Lee County last year, only about 25 percent of the applicants were eligible. The high rate of rejections is due to several factors, said Carrie Davis, president of Wealth Watchers Inc., a Jacksonville nonprofit and a program administrator. Florida Hardest Hit only considers unemployment or underemployment caused by the recession as eligible hardships – not divorce, death, injury, disaster or illness, she said. But most rejections come from the fact that homeowners are finding out about the program too late: It’s not available to those behind in their mortgage payments by more than six months.
“It’s amazing to me how many unemployed homeowners are unaware of our program,” Davis said.

Homeowners can apply one of two ways. They can go to the program’s website and fill out the online forms, after which a program administrator will contact them to submit paperwork to determined their eligibility. Or they can apply through a program agency such as Wealth Watchers.

The difference is that those who apply in person are guaranteed administration by the local agency if they are eligible. If they apply through the website, an agency is assigned from anywhere in the state, she said.
Homeowners should be careful they have the correct information when they apply, Green said, because if a person is found ineligible, there is no second chance.

Mortgage holders also must agree to accept Hardest Hit Fund money for loan-holder payments; Green said 77 have. On Tuesday, GMAC Mortgage, a subsidiary of Ally Financial Inc., announced it has agreed to participate.

The total amount allocated for all states in the program, which President Barack Obama introduced last year, is $7.6 billion.

Copyright © 2011 The Florida Times-Union, Jacksonville, Kevin Turner. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
Federal program offers up to $18,000 in mortgage help

Meyling Calero
Sales Associate
Short Sale specialist
RMG Realty Group
305-771-5154
MeylingCalero@gmail.com

3 Absolute Musts for Buying a Home - Without the Stress!

2011-05-26T04:46:00.001-07:00

May 25, 2011 6:11 PM
Major money transactions are stressful. Moving is stressful. Big life commitments are stressful. Put 'em all together, and what do you have? The home buying process (and the potential for one of the most stressful life experiences you'll ever have)!

But even in this volatile market where distressed properties - and people! - are commonplace, it is possible to maintain your sanity in the midst of a real estate deal - I promise.

Here are 3 money, mindset and calendar management strategies for buying a home, without stressing entirely out.

1. Work the Boy Scout program: be prepared.
Scrambling for money and documents that the lender, unexpectedly, “requires” to close has got to rank up there in the top couple of stressors that buyers experience. Once you get into contract and, especially, once you’ve removed contingencies and put your deposit money on the line, every request that your lender makes seems like a ransom demand for your home - and your life, as you’d planned it.

Avoid this scrambling by being prepared. If you are planning to buy a home down the road, consult a mortgage broker and real estate pro early on in your planning process, so you can know what kind of cash you'll realistically need to close the deal - before you start the buying process. You might keep hearing about 3.5% down FHA loans, but your local pros can reality check you that it might cost an addition 5 or 6% of the purchase price just to close such a loan, in your area and price range!

If they give you a range, err on the high side - penny-scraping buyers are generally the most stressed of them all, as they are the ones whose deals are most likely to be entirely derailed if there’s an uptick in interest rates, say, during the time they are house hunting or in escrow, or if the homeowners’ insurance costs a bit more than they planned.

And have all your documents ready, too - things like divorce decrees, tax returns, updated check stubs, documentation of bills that you’ve recently paid down or off , even driver’s licenses (you wouldn’t believe the number of people who can’t produce ID when the notary needs it at the closing table!), keep all these items at the ready in case your lender requires them. By the same universal law that renders my dogs smarter and faster the wetter they get, it seems like lenders require the most documentation of the folks who have no idea where their most important papers are.

Last, but not least, there’s also an education element of preparedness. Educate yourself about the standard practices and timelines for a real estate transaction in your local market (your agent will surely be able to brief you on this, and you can also peruse Trulia Voices Community to sample the experiences of other folks buying right now in your area.) If you’re buying a bank-owned property or a short-sale, educate yourself about what this will entail - spend some time reading up on the rollercoaster of Wild Westiness (a mixed metaphor, I know, but still appropriate) that some distressed property sales can be, from the buyer’s point of view.

When it comes to buying a home, realistic expectations will set you free. Stress-free, that is.

2. Keep your timelines as flexible as possible, as long as possible. Rarely does the sun set in America without some homebuyer (or 5) near you lying awake in bed wondering how long they’ll have to:
    a) keep bunking with their in-laws,
    b) keep paying the nightly rate for the all-suite hotel down the street from the place they’re buying,
    c) keep paying the daily fee for the moving truck which is parked outside, containing everything they own,
    d) keep begging their landlord to please, please, please give them another 24 hours
        - and they swearing they’ll be out after that (even though they said that yesterday!),
    e) keep pushing back the vacation days they took off work for the move that seems like it will never happen, or
    f) some combination or all of the above,all because their escrow is not closing on the timeline they expected it to.

There are as many reasons for late escrow closings as there are insomniac homebuyers facing this issue: buyer’s loan underwriting is taking too long, seller’s short sale application is still being processed, appraisal is glitchy, bank-owned property asset manager is slow to produce the necessary signatures, and the list goes on.

More important than knowing the causes, though, is having the awareness that escrow closing dates are not set in stone until the end is very, very near - and that the problem of delayed closing comes up with ever-increasing frequency these days. Buyers who are trying to time their closing so that they move out of their apartment on the exact day they plan to close are likely to be disappointed - and temporarily homeless - in the current market climate.

Best practice is to plan on some overlapping days, weeks or even a month between the time you should be able to move into your next home, and the time you must be out of your current home, if you can afford it. Keep your moving plans flexible as long as possible - I’ve know a number of buyers who didn’t realize their move would be delayed until they were signing their closing docs!

Also, it’s sanity-making to try to keep some flexibility about your daily calendar while you are in escrow, lest you need to show up at the property and get some additional inspections, unexpectedly, which were recommended by your inspector. If you only have a couple of days before you must remove your inspection contingency, you might have to drop everything and stop in at the place for an hour here or there. You might also need to stop in at the bank - in person - to wire cash when it’s time to increase your deposit or pay your down payment or closing costs into escrow. This cannot usually be done over the phone or outside of banker’s hours, so if you can be a bit flexible for these outings, calendar-wise, you’ll be in good shape.

3. Pre-approve the folks across the bargaining table from you. There’s nothing worse than doing every thing you’re supposed to do, then having the deal fall apart at the last minute, through no fault of your own. I’ve known scores of buyers whose short sales failed to get approved by the seller’s bank and fell out of escrow as a result. I’ve also seen and heard from buyers whose deals died when their intended properties failed to meet the buyer’s mortgage guidelines because of condition problems like incomplete kitchen remodel jobs, mold or electrical problems and high-cost pest report items that neither the buyer nor the seller can afford to repair.

These ailing transactions can be prevented by early diagnosis: vet the other party’s qualifications and ability to close the deal, before you get into contract. For buyers, this can mean having your agent collect as much information as possible about the seller’s equity position, how underwater the home is, which banks are involved and how successful the listing agent is at closing short sale transactions - all of these things can give your agent and yourself a big old clue as to whether a short sale is likely to close. Similarly, if you’re getting an FHA loan, before you make an offer, walk through the property with your agent and troubleshoot it for condition problems that might come up during the appraisal.

With this information you can make an informed decision whether to move forward and try to buy the place; if you get into contract knowing it’s a crap shoot, at least you’ll have realistic expectations - the sort that are very difficult to disappoint.

Article source: Tara-Nicholle Nelson

.3 Absolute Musts for Buying a Home - Without the Stress!

Looking to buy rent or sell ?
Contact me for a FREE available property report’
Meyling Calero
RMG Realty Group
305-771-5154
MeylingCalero@gmail.com

Troubled home market creates generation of renters

2011-05-25T19:32:00.001-07:00

Troubled home market creates generation of renters
WASHINGTON (AP) – May 25, 2011 – A growing number of Americans can’t afford a home or don’t want to own one, a trend that’s spawning a generation of renters and a rise in apartment construction.
Many of the new renters are former owners who lost homes to foreclosure or bankruptcy. For others who could afford one, a home now feels too costly, too risky or unlikely to appreciate enough to make it a worthwhile investment.

The proportion of U.S. households that own homes is at its lowest point since 1998. When the housing bubble burst four years ago, 31.6 percent of households were renters. Now, it’s at 33.6 percent and rising. Since the housing meltdown, nearly 3 million households have become renters. At least 3 million more are expected by 2015, according to census data analyzed by Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies and The Associated Press.

All told, nearly 38 million households are renters.Among the signs of a rising rental market:
• The pace of apartment construction has surged 115 percent from its October 2009 low. It’s still well below a healthy level. But permits for apartments, a gauge of future construction, hit a two-year peak in March. By contrast, permits for single-family homes are on pace for their lowest annual level on records dating to 1960.
• The number of completed apartments averaged about 250,000 a year before the boom. They fell to 54,000 last year and will probably number around the same this year. But then the number will likely double to about 100,000 in 2012 and hit 250,000 by 2013 or 2014, according to the CoStar Group, a research firm. The lag is due to the time it takes for an apartment building to be completed: an average of 14 months.
• Demand is driving up rents. The median price of advertised rents rose 4.1 percent between the end of 2009 and the end of 2010, census data shows. Few expect the higher prices to stem the flood of renters, though. One reason: Younger adults don’t value homeownership as earlier generations did and many prefer to rent, studies show.
• Rental housing is giving builders more work just as construction of single-family homes has dried up. Still, that economic lift won’t make up for all the single-family houses not being built. Apartments account for only about one-fourth of homes. And renters are outspent roughly 2-to-1 by homeowners, who pay for items from lawn care to remodeling that helps drive the economy.
Before the housing bust, mortgage rates were so low it was often cheaper to buy than rent. That was true a decade ago in more than half the 54 biggest metro areas, according to Moody’s Analytics. Today, by contrast, it’s cheaper to rent in about 72 percent of metro areas.
Consider Mason Hamilton, 26, an energy consultant who rents an apartment with his wife for $1,100 a month in Alexandria, Virginia, outside Washington. He’d like something bigger. But he says he doesn’t plan to buy even though he could afford to.

“My parents always told me, ‘You need to buy a place; you need to buy property,’” he says. “But the housing market is insane.”

Many younger Americans see owning as risky. It hardly seems the best way to build wealth, especially when prices are falling.“There’s been this idea for years, a part of the American dream, that owning a home improves and strengthens communities,” said John McIlwain, a senior fellow at the nonprofit Urban Land Institute. “But what we’ve learned over the past few years is that many people simply are not ready to own a home.”
From the 1940s until 2007, homes appreciated an average of nearly 5 percent a year, adjusted for inflation. In the past four years, the median price of a single-family home has sunk 37 percent, by $57,500, to its lowest since 2002. Yet in some areas, owning is still too expensive for many.

“It’s becoming so difficult for most Americans to afford a home, with larger downpayments and tighter credit, that it is creating a renter’s nation,” says Robert Shiller, a Yale economist and co-creator of the Case-Shiller home price index. “The home is no longer an investment; it’s a burden.”

Homeownership bestows its own financial advantages, of course. Each loan payment builds equity. Loan interest and property taxes provide tax deductions. And in normal housing markets, home values rise over time.
But for now, renting is more attractive. Hamilton, the energy consultant, says his father, a 58-year-old teacher in Richmond, Virginia, still owes nearly as much on his mortgage as his house is worth.

“He’s stuck in that house,” Hamilton says. “After telling me to buy for all of those years, he’d love to rent like me.”
Copyright © 2011 The Associated Press, Derek Kravitz, AP real estate writer.

Troubled home market creates generation of renters

Top 10 Deal Breakers &How To Avoid Them

2011-05-24T11:44:00.000-07:00

May 23, 2011|Buyers,Sellers5 Comments
By: Ginger Wilcox
Article Source: Trulia

Your buyers have found the home of their dreams, started packing their stuff and have mentally moved in when suddenly a challenge arises that could put a serious wrench in the home buying process. In today’s market, finding the home is only the start of a transaction that can have many stumbling blocks along the way.

Here are the top 10 deal breakers buyers and sellers encounter that can impact the sale of a home:

1. Fixtures and Personal Property Pitfalls

I can’t tell you how many times I have seen deals falter because of disagreements over silly stuff like who gets the fireplace screen, the wall sconces or the appliances. For some buyers and sellers it can be difficult to distinguish between personal property and fixtures that come with the house. I once had someone try to take a beloved bathtub. Like the buyer wouldn’t notice?

How to avoid it- Disputes over fixtures and personal property are common. It is important to educate your client about the difference between attached appliances and personal property but there are times when the lines get blurred. Wall mounted flat screen TVs are frequently an issue. If something is really special to a homeowner, recommend the sellers remove the item before you put the house on the market. Have a beloved chandelier? Replace it before you start showing the home with an acceptable alternative. If this isn’t possible, exclude it in MLS along with frequently confused items like that flat screen and make sure it is excluded at the time the offer is written as well. Buyers should investigate and include any items that are important to them.

2. The dreaded ex-wife/husband

There may be many reasons to dread an ex, but when it comes to selling a property, it can impact the sale of a home. We often see situations where the owners got divorced but he/she didn’t sign off. Finding this out late in the process can be problematic, especially when one of the parties no longer has a financial interest in selling the home. This scenario along with other clouds on the title can take time to clear. Bank owned properties often come with title issues such as unpaid garbage fines that can impact your closing.

How to avoid it: Get a preliminary title report as soon as possible and be sure to ask your seller if there are any potential claims on the title.

3. Buyers Buying “Stuff”

Your first time home buyers are moving into their new home. They don’t have a washer and dryer of their own and the local appliance store is offering a smoking deal – get a store credit card, and save 15% on the purchase of your new appliances! Sound like a steal? It might just kill your deal.

Time and again we counsel buyers not to make major purchases before close of escrow such as a new car or major appliances, and time and again, some appliance store has a great “deal” that kills the deal. Any major purchase the impacts your credit can also impact your loan being funded too.

How to avoid it: Regularly remind your buyers to wait on appliance purchases, new car purchases, furniture and more until they the loan has been funded. Tell them to put those credit cards away until the paperwork is recorded.

4. Failure To Disclose

“But Ginger, I didn’t know I had to disclose that the hill behind the house next door came down last spring. It didn’t impact my part of the hill.” I have had to fight with sellers to get them to disclose certain facts about their home, but it is almost always better to over share when it comes to disclosure. Inevitably, a neighbor is going to tell the prospective buyer about the sliding hill, the formerly moldy basement or about the meth lab around the corner.

How to avoid it: When in doubt, disclose, disclose, disclose. Problems always seem much bigger when they are uncovered by a buyer after they are in contract.

5. Appraisal Nightmares

We went through a period of time when appraisals always magically came in at the offer price. For the most part, those times are gone. Appraisals are common deal breakers, and in many transactions, you don’t just have one. Review appraisals of the first appraisal are commonplace.

How to avoid it: Make sure the lender has a qualified appraiser. When possible, accompany the appraiser on the inspection. Prepare your clients in advance that the purchase price may have to be renegotiated or a higher down payment may need to be brought in if the appraisal comes in low.

6. Who Owns What?

Your buyer thinks they are getting a 6000 square foot lot, only to find out that the fence is built on the neighboring property. Or they think they own the driveway, but it is really an easement on property owned by the cranky old neighbor. Lot lines, shared driveways, and fences are common stumbling blocks in a transaction.

How to avoid it: Review the preliminary title report carefully. Legal descriptions aren’t always easy to read, but take the time and effort to have your client do so carefully. Have a title officer walk you through the title report to explain anything unusual. You should have your client go to the city/county authorities to review the items on file. If your client is concerned about the lot boundaries, have them perform a survey. While surveys can be costly, not knowing the actual boundaries can be costlier says Diana Rugh, a Realtor with David Lyng Real Estate, in Santa Cruz County, California. If a client is only concerned about one side of the property, she has her clients perform a partial survey for just the side in question.

7. No permits

In many areas, unpermitted additions or remodels have become serious deal killers. Many cities and towns have implemented pre-sale inspections to fill their dwindling coffers.

How to avoid it: If city/town inspections are required, get them in advance, correct any required issues, and get your clearance. Some municipalities don’t operate on the swiftest timeline, so start as early as you can.

8. Unexpected inspection findings

I used to work with an inspector that other agents called the deal killer and honestly, he was. But he was also a lawsuit saver. When you have a client paying hundreds of thousands if not multiple millions of dollars for a house, they should know what they are buying. I call inspection periods the second negotiation phase of the deal. Inspections are common deal breakers when agreement cannot be reached over repairs. Sarah Stelmok, a Realtor in Fredericksburg, VA almost lost a deal when the home inspection uncovered numerous dead felines in a crawl space. Amazingly enough, she was able to hold it together, the felines were removed and she closed the deal.

How to avoid it: Get inspections before the property is actively on the market. Buyers will probably still get their own, but at least you can resolve serious problems that may send a buyer running in advance. Repairs almost always cost a seller less if the buyer knows about it before they write their offer.

9. The lender changed the rules

This may be hard to imagine, but sometimes you are ready to rock and roll, you got your buyer pre-approved, not just pre-qualified, you are in contract and everything looks great until- poof- the lender changes the rules. Suddenly your buyer can’t meet the lender documentation requirements. This would have been helpful to know in advance.

How to avoid it: Unfortunately, there is not much that can be done to avoid it other than working with a reputable mortgage broker or lender with a solid record of closing transactions. If you represent the buyer, you may want to recommend the buyer leave their loan contingency in place until the loan is funded. If market conditions don’t permit this, make sure your buyer is aware of the ramifications if the loan doesn’t fund.

10. The bank doesn’t care

If the property being purchased is a short sale, the bank is pretty much in charge and they simply don’t care about your timeline. I have heard of people celebrating two and three year anniversaries of working on a short sale. When it comes to short sale timelines, anything goes, or better yet- who knows?!

How to avoid it: The best way to save a deal when a bank is involved is to make sure your buyers have appropriate expectations about the process. Educate them of the pitfalls of working with a bank. You might want to share the handout found in this article on the 5 Most Common Complaints of Short Sale and REO Buyers.

One of the best ways to avoid killing a deal- educating your clients about the entire home buying/selling process to make sure everyone is properly prepped goes a long way to holding deals together.

Meyling Calero
RMG Realty Group Inc.
Lic. Real Estate Sales Associate
Short Sale Specialist
MeylingCalero@aol.com
www.MeylingRealEstate.com
2011 Women's Council of Realtors VP of Membership
2010 Women's Council of Realtors Secretary
2009 Women's Council of Realtors Treasurer
2008 Women's Council of Realtors Ways and Means Chair

For more information on your Real Estate needs or concerns, contact Meyling at MeylingCalero@aol.com or Visit www.MeylingRealEstate.com

5 Steps to Deciding How Much to Offer – or Ask – for Your Home

2011-05-23T05:24:00.001-07:00

By Tara-Nicholle Nelson | Broker in San Francisco, CA
One of the hardest, most important decisions homebuyers face is how much to offer for their home. And the glut of information on the web about real estate only makes buyers even crazier than the decision itself does. Supply, demand, foreclosure rates, mortgage rates – buyers think they need to run spreadsheets and do fancy math to make a smart offer. And THAT can be super intimidating.
But the fact is, there is a pretty short list of steps you need to take to make a smart offer – one that gets you a great value, but is also likely to be successful at getting the property. (A low offer does not make for a great deal if you don’t get the house!) And most of the same steps apply to sellers trying to set the list price that will lure the most buyers (and net them the most cash)!
Step 1: What do the “comps” say? First things first. When it comes to pricing a home, or making an offer to buy one, the ‘first thing” is the home’s fair market value. Both buyers and sellers should work with an experienced, local agent to understand what the home’s value is. Most agents will do this by offering you a look back at similar properties that have recently sold in the neighborhood – i.e., the comparable sales, or comps.
Ideally, look for comparables that are very recent sales (3 months or less before you’re listing or buying), very similar properties (i.e., same number of bedrooms, bathrooms, square footage; and similar style, condition and amenities). If you do get into contract, these may be the same comparables which will be considered by the appraiser, so looking at them before making an offer can:
(a) provide factual support for a lower-than-asking offer or for the asking price, in a negotiation, and
(b) result in a sale price at which the property will actually appraise, later on - avoiding the common glitch of the deal falling through because the appraisal comes in way below the agreed-upon price.
Also, looking at comps is the first step for locating a home’s seller and prospective buyer in the reality-based universe of current home values. The fact that you bought or refinanced the place at a given value 5 or 6 years ago is entirely irrelevant to what it’s worth today, as is the buyer’s belief that the place was worth $100K less at the trough of the market, in 2009.
Step 2: What can you afford? This step is much more critical for buyers than for sellers. (Unfortunately, sellers, the facts that you need to net a particular amount to buy your next home or pay your existing mortgages or credit card bills off has no relationship whatsoever to the price at which you should list or will sell your home.)
Buyers – it’s a must to make sure that your offer price for any given home falls within the range of what is affordable for you. This includes offering a price within the range for which your mortgage was preapproved, but also includes making sure that the monthly payment and cash you’ll need to close the deal (down payment + closing costs) are affordable in light of the particular house. If, for example, the property will require repairs for which you’ll need to conserve cash, or has HOA dues you hadn’t planned on, you may need to reject your offer accordingly.
Step 3: What’s your competition? (And what’s theirs?) This is another step at which it’s critical to check in with your agent. You need to know what level of competition you’ll face – whether you are a buyer, or a seller. As a seller, you can find this out by looking at things like how many comparable homes are listed in your town or your neighborhood in your general price range (your agent will brief you on this). Sellers should also consider what type of transactions their home will be up against – the more distressed properties (foreclosed homes and short sales) with which your home must compete, the more aggressive you must be with your pricing to get your home sold.
The more competition you have, as a seller, the lower you should tweak your list price to attract buyers to come see your home. (And the more buyers come to see your home, the more likely you are to get an offer!)
Buyers should also be cognizant of the competition level they will face for homes. Believe it or not, even on today’s market there are properties and neighborhoods in which multiple offers are the name of the game. Work with your agent to understand the list price-to-sale price (LP:SP) ratio , which lets you know how much under or over the asking price properties are selling for in your target home’s neighborhood; the higher the LP:SP ratio, generally speaking, the less competition there is among buyers.
Your agent can also brief you on:
(1) The number of offers – if any - that have been presented on “your” property (which the listing agent will usually, gladly tell). If there are other offers, you’ll want to make a higher offer to compete successfully against them; and
(2) The number of days the home has been on the market, relative to how long an average home stays on the market before it sells – the longer it has, the more pressure is on the seller, price-wise, and the less competition the buyer is likely to have. (One exception is the sweet spot scenario, when a property that has been on the market for a long time has a price reduction and gets a bunch of offers as a result! )
4. How much do they need to sell (or buy) it? Buyers: Has the listing in which you’re interested been reduced at all? By how much? Has the listing agent informed you that her clients are highly motivated, flexible or have an urgent need to sell?
Sellers – most buyers are not in a high state of urgency to buy these days, given the long-term, high affordability of homes and interest rates, except when they have an urgent personal reason for moving, e.g., buyers who are relocating for work. Of course, all of real estate is hyper local, so it’s important to understand how motivated buyers are in your local market, generally speaking, before you set your list price.
Trulia’s new, interactive Price Reductions Map offers a number of clues to critical indicators of buyer and seller motivations in your home’s town and zip code, in just a click on the map - including:
· how many homes in your target property’s area have had at least one price reduction,
· how likely a home in the area is to have multiple price reductions.
The higher these numbers are, the stronger of a buyer’s market it is, and the more bargaining power buyers likely have. And if you’re the seller, the higher these numbers are for your area, the lower you may need to price your home to be successful at getting it sold.
5. How much do you want to buy, or sell, the place? Step #4 was about taking the motivations of the folks on the other side of the bargaining table into account when formulating your offer and your list price. This step is all about you – what’s your level of motivation? Now, buyers, you certainly shouldn’t offer a price way above what the place is worth (see Step #1) just because you really, really want it, unless you have the cash to throw around. But within the range of the home’s fair market value, it may make sense to move higher within that range if you are highly motivated to get that particular property.
Sellers: think of your list price as the most powerful marketing tool at your disposal. if you really want or need to sell, get aggressive about setting your price as low as makes sense for your your home's value and local market dynamics to attract qualified buyers and help your home stand out against all the competition.

Article source: 5 Steps to Deciding How Much to Offer – or Ask – for Your Home

NAR Call for Action: No 20% downpayment rule

2011-05-23T05:00:00.001-07:00

WASHINGTON – May 19, 2011 – Could all buyers afford a 20 percent downpayment?
The National Association of Realtors® asks members to imagine what the real estate market would look like if every buyer needed a 20 percent downpayment to get a mortgage. How many potential buyers would miss out on the American Dream? And what would that do to a market already saturated with repossessed homes?
According to NAR, that 20 percent requirement is a very real possibility if the new regulations governing Qualified Residential Mortgages (QRM) take effect this year.

NAR says that Congress must understand the impact this rule will have on home sales, and it is asking all members to contact their personal senator and representative. The Call for Action email developed by NAR asks lawmakers to tell regulators that a 20 percent downpayment was not their legislative intent. Instead, regulators should implement a more reasonable Qualified Residential Mortgage (QRM) that will keep creditworthy buyers in the market and able to get a loan.

The process takes very little time through NAR’s Realtor Action Center. The email that has been created includes space for a personal message. Once Realtors fill out the required information, the system automatically sends a copy of the email to personal representatives.
© 2011 Florida Realtors®

NAR Call for Action: No 20% downpayment rule

Freddie Mac rolls out summer promotion

2011-05-19T05:40:00.001-07:00

Freddie Mac rolls out summer promotion
MCLEAN, Va. – May 18, 2011 – HomeSteps, the real estate sales unit of Freddie Mac, launched a nationwide sales promotion for its inventory of foreclosed homes.

The HomeSteps Summer Sales Promotion offers up to 3.5 percent for the buyer’s closing costs and a $1,200 selling agent bonus for initial offers received May 16 – July 31, 2011, and escrows that are closed on or before Sept. 30, 2011. This offer is valid only on HomeSteps homes sold to owner-occupant buyers.

A two-year Home Protect limited home warranty that covers electrical, plumbing, air conditioning, heating and other major systems and appliances is offered on some eligible HomeSteps homes. Home Protect also provides discounts of up to 30 percent on the purchase of appliances, though terms, conditions and limitations apply and not all homes or borrowers will qualify. For details, see www.HomeSteps.com/smartbuy.

For HomeSteps Summer Sales Promotion details and conditions, visit http://www.HomeSteps.com.

Freddie Mac rolls out summer promotion

5 Strategies for Navigating the Summer Clearance Sale - on Real Estate!

2011-05-19T05:21:00.001-07:00

By Tara-Nicholle Nelson | Broker in San Francisco, CA May 17, 2011 11:26 PM | 1,281 views | 5 comments

Home prices are low, interest rates are low - real estate is basically having a summer clearance sale! But unlike buying a clearance-priced car or computer, making the wrong move in this real estate 'sale' can have disastrous effects, from losing your dream home due to a bad bid to ending up with a money pit of a property.
Here are a few money-saving, pitfall-avoiding tips and tricks for buyers who want to do some smart home shopping this summer.

1. Have a vision in place, before you start your house hunt. Actually, have several visions in place. Have a financial vision, complete with a clear picture of what your total income and expenses look like, in the “after homebuying” view, including what you pay out for your home and related expenses, like HOA dues and homeowners’ insurance. Have a vision of your life in your new home, including what you want to do, with whom and where you want and need to go - in the work, family and recreation areas of your life.
If you kick off your conversations with your mortgage broker and real estate agent with a clear understanding of the lifestyle you are looking to create, you’ll be much less likely to get derailed. With a clear vision in place and, ideally, on paper, you can clearly communicate your wants, needs, goals and financial boundaries to your professionals, telling them what you can afford, rather than trying to shoehorn your financial plans into one-size-fits-all mortgage guidelines. With a vision, the temptation of an uber-low-priced, but completely inappropriate, home will not lure you into buying the wrong place for your needs. (Nor will an amazing home that is simply out of your personal price range - no matter how great a value it is for the money!)

2. Don’t let affordability get between you and reality. High affordability doesn’t necessarily mean you can get every single thing you want - and name your price. The fact is, even people who are spending millions for their homes don’t get everything they want! I’ve seen buyers insist that they need X number of bedrooms and Y number of bathrooms in move-in condition for a price that is just not going to happen, even in this clearance sale climate, and end up looking and looking, ad infinitum.

If your agent has shown you home after home that is what you want, but has sold for more than you want to spend, and you’re confident that you can find or cut a better deal because the market is down and you just os happen to be a brilliant negotiator (!), you might be at risk of falling into this trap. There are deals to be had, but if you don’t stay grounded in reality, you’ll end up chasing your tail and missing out on the tax and lifestyle advantages of homeownership.

If you’ve been house hunting for months and months on end, your agent keeps trying to tell you that you should search in a lower price bracket, you have repeatedly gotten overbid or you just can’t seem to find the precise home you seek in the location and price range you seek, at least consider the possibility that you might have an outsized wish list for your budget. Take a step back, revisit your vision, and remind yourself what’s really important. It’s okay to save some “must-haves” and “deal-breakers” for your next home purchase!

3. Get a local expert to brief you on the local market, then screen out the noise. Now more than ever, it’s essential to have laser beam focus on the information and strategies that will get you what you want - whether it’s an amazing deal on the home you’ve always wanted or simply success at becoming the owner of your first home at a price you never thought would ever be possible. Otherwise, you’ll end up all over the place, spending your time, money and sanity attending auctions, getting worked up over distressed properties that aren’t yet for sale, trying to negotiate deals with sellers who are in no position to cut them and having your lowball offers on bank-owned properties rejected time after time.

Don’t let a news story about a guy in Minnesota who got a home for $3.27 be the basis for your entire home buying strategy. Instead, ask around and get referrals to a local broker or agent who has a track record of helping the people you know. Read their answers on Trulia Voices and ask them your own questions to get a sense for whether they might be a good fit for you - if they are, and you trust them, then consult with them on the dynamics of your local market. The market is down everywhere, relative to 2006. But some markets - and some neighborhoods within markets - are still seeing multiple offers and home prices which are relatively recession-proof, compared to what you’d expect from the national news.

Once you have a strategy in place, work it - don’t let your acupuncturist or shoe repair guy convince you that your strategy is wrong, that you could get the place for cheaper or that the bank should absolutely do every single repair, or you should walk away from the deal. Many would-be buyers lose out on great homes because they take negotiating advice from their holistic veterinarian over that being offered by their broker or agent.

4. Read everything. Good faith estimates. Contracts. Disclosures. Inspection reports. There is a long, long list of multi-page documents that are very easy to “just sign” when you’re in the heat of the hunt and think you’re on the scent of an amazing deal. I’m not suggesting you ask for a week-long pause button to read every document, either - rather, read them when you get them, ask questions, and keep asking until you understand the documents.

Many buyers this summer will make offers on more than one home before they get into contract on “the one,” and many of those properties will be short sales or foreclosures. With distressed properties, every contract is different, so it behooves you not to go on autopilot, just skimming the papers as you might otherwise. Also, inspection reports might reveal red flags and condition issues that you’d normally expect to see in the seller’s disclosures. It’s especially critical, in these situations, to fully understand as much as you can about the property, your loan, and your obligations and due dates under the contracts.

5. Stop your mental accounting and do the actual math - on paper. In the field of behavioral economics, mental accounting refers to the tendency we humans have of doing math in our heads, separating things like easy money (e.g., the so-called “instant equity” from buying a home for less than it’s supposedly worth) from hard-earned wages and salary, and making spending decisions differently from these different mental accounts.

On the scent of a good deal, and in the heat of the hunt, even the most meticulous homebuyer can go up a few thousand in offer price to beat out other buyers. No problem, right? Well, but then when the inspector uncovers a few needed repairs, they make a mental guess as to what they’ll cost, and add that in - again, mentally. Then, when the lender requires a few extra thousand bucks than expected to close, that goes on top, but again, only mentally. And mental money tends to stretch a bit longer than real money does!

So, you can see how it’s possible to break the bank when you thought you were in great shape because you scored such a great purchase price for the property itself.

Even if you hate budgets with every iota of your being, buck up on this one project, pull out the calculator or open up a spreadsheet and keep track of every line item. Get actual repair bids during your inspection period, to the extent possible, and get your math mojo on. It’s fine to buy and incur these overages here and there, but keeping track of them is key. You know what I like to say - surprises are for birthday parties, not for real estate transactions, and not for your bank account, either!

Keeping a strict tab on the expenses you incur during the transaction - or will need to incur afterwards -- will save you so much drama later.

5 Strategies for Navigating the Summer Clearance Sale - on Real Estate!

Meyling Calero
Short Sale Specialist
Sales Associate
RMG Realty Group Inc.
786-318-6825
MeylingCalero@gmail.com

Strategic Default: Walking Away from Mortgages

2011-05-18T05:20:00.001-07:00

Before you walk away, consider a short sale. It is less damaging to your credit than a foreclosure…

On February 28, 2011, in Short Sale Information, Strategic Default Information, by David

(CBS) Despite some indications that the economy is recovering, the housing market remains a disaster area. Currently, about seven million homeowners are behind on their mortgages and that number is only getting worse.

Banks, with the help of the government, are offering some relief to homeowners who’ve lost jobs and just can’t meet their payments. But there’s a growing number who can pay but are simply walking away from houses that are now worth as little as half of what they paid for them.

It’s called “strategic default.” People have done the math and decided making those monthly payments is just throwing money away, leaving the mortgage holders – the banks – as zookeepers of an ever-growing parade of white elephants.

In the past year it is estimated that at least a million Americans who can afford to stay in their homes simply walked away.

Among them Chris Deaner and his wife Dana of Sun City, Ariz. West Foothill Drive has become a street of shattered dreams. “Amazingly, 16 out of the 44 houses on this street have foreclosed over the last year,” Deaner told ”60 Minutes” correspondent Morley Safer. Deaner says his own home will become number 17 on that foreclosure list.

When Deaner, an auditor for a local university, bought his three bedroom house in 2006 for $262,000, he thought he got a bargain.

“You know, first time homebuyers, we don’t know houses are overvalued. We just know we need to get in before it keeps going up, and up, and up,” he explained.

But then the balloon burst. So how much does he think he could get for that $262,000 house today?
“Right now, about $142,000,” Deaner said. “Big drop, over 43 percent.” Deaner and his house were, as they say, “underwater.”

With a mortgage of about a quarter of a million dollars on a home worth less than $150,000, he has one very expensive lemon. He says he tried to talk his bank into renegotiating his mortgage, but because he earns enough to keep paying, the bank said no deal.

“They refused to. They said it was gonna affect my credit, and they were gonna take my house. And I pretty much said, ‘Go for it,’” Deaner told Safer.

Deaner said he could afford to stay in the home. But he chose not to. He is walking away. That lemon of a house is now the bank’s problem.“It’s almost like the ‘in thing’ to do right now, it seems like,” he said.

And because Deaner, like many Americans, only made a 10 percent down payment on his home, “taking a hike” is a lot easier. By law in Arizona and nine other states, the bank cannot go after any of his other assets. But his credit rating will suffer.

“Aren’t you fearful that you’re gonna get a reputation as being a deadbeat?” Safer asked. “Yeah. But with the money savings that I will have in four to six years, I’m confident I’ll have money to buy my way into a house if I want to,” he replied.

Asked if he doesn’t even feel a twinge of guilt, Deaner told Safer, “No, especially after dealing with my lender, trying to contact them. None at all

Strategic Default: Walking Away from Mortgages

The 5 Most Common Complaints of Short Sale and REO Buyers (and How to Avoid Them)

2011-05-18T04:50:00.000-07:00

May 16, 2011|

Roughly forty percent of the homes for sale on today’s market are short sales and foreclosures! Distressed properties are well known for their value (a reputation which is sometimes accurate, and sometimes not), but they also have a reputation for causing buyers to become distressed, too!

Transactional snafus, last-minute surprises and long, drawn-out escrows that never close seem to be par for the course. Instead of avoiding these properties altogether, get educated about the most common dramas that go down in these deals, and how you can avoid falling victim.

1. Run-on (and on, and on) escrows. When you’re buying a home (or selling one, for that matter), time is absolutely of the essence. And buyers reasonably expect that the big time suck in real estate is in the house hunting process itself; seems like once you find a home you want to buy and the seller agrees to your price and terms, things should move pretty quickly, right?

Not so much, when it comes to some distressed property sales. I’ve heard tell of the occasional, swiftly-moving escrow on an REO (real estate owned – by the bank). But for the most part, these transactions take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks longer than “regular” sales, because of the extra signatures, supervisor-level approvals and even investor involvement required to seal the deal. Banks don’t have the same sense of urgency individual home sellers do, and it’s not uncommon for the people who need to sign on the dotted line to be on vacation or scattered across the country, adding days’ or weeks’ worth of time to the escrow.

And short sales are also an entirely different animal when it comes to escrow timelines. While a standard sale from an individual seller to an individual buyer might take 45 days from contract to closing, a short sale can take anywhere from 45 days to 6 or 8 months (!) to get the deal closed, after the seller has accepted the contract.

Avoid the drama by: expecting your escrow to run long, and being pleasantly surprised if it doesn’t. Expectation management is everything. Make sure you take these extended timelines into account when you’re working with your mortgage broker on the issue of when to lock your interest rate, and how long your rate locks will last. You might even need to plan on and/or set aside an allowance for the cost of extending your low interest rate, if rates are rising rapidly during the time you’re waiting for the deal to be done.

2. Bank won’t take lowball offer. If I had a dollar for every time I’ve received a question from an outraged reader to the effect that a buyer has had their short sale or REO offer rejected on grounds that it was too low, even though the bank has no other offers, I could buy a foreclosure myself (admittedly, it’d be one of those $150 foreclosures in some blighted town with tax liens and no plumbing, but still).

Banks owe their shareholders and investors a duty to get as much as they can for these properties. Just because you see it’s on the market and listed as a short sale or a foreclosure doesn’t mean they’re going to give it to you for a fraction of its worth. The bank’s goal is to get a purchase price as close as possible to the home’s fair market value, as determined by the recent sales prices of similar, nearby homes, with some adjustments made for the property’s condition. Fact is, many banks would rather see the listing agent reduce the price by a moderate amount, and wait to see what offers come in, than to accept an offer 30 percent below the asking price just because there are no other offers on the table.

Avoid the drama by: working with your agent to make a realistic offer, based on recent comparable sales in the neighborhood, not just on what you think you can get away with. You can waste a lot of time, spin a lot of wheels and lose out on a lot of properties making lowball offer after lowball offer on distressed homes. Sit down with your broker or agent, review the ‘comps’ and make a smart offer that reflects a good value for you, is within your budget and is not bizarrely out of the realm of the fair market value of the property.

3. Last minute postponements/cancellations. These transactions have an uncanny way of being delayed at the last minute – or never going through at all, through no fault of the wanna-be buyer. You signed docs yesterday, put your dog in the crate this morning and just hopped in the moving truck, only to get a text from your broker that the deal didn’t close because the escrow company which was selected by the bank flubbed the checkboxes on a single sheet of paper (it happens). Or, you’ve been in contract (with the seller) on a short sale for four months, and the bank refuses the sale entirely because the seller refuses to kick even $1 of their own cash into the deal, despite having a flush savings account.

Avoid the drama by: staying as flexible as possible with your moving plans as long as possible. Best practice is to plan on some overlap between the time you can be in your last place and your scheduled move-in date. Also, if you’re in contract on a short sale, you should take the point of view that you don’t have a firm deal until you get the bank’s approval of the transaction. So don’t even think about starting to make moving plans or paying for home inspections and appraisals until you know the bank has greenlit the deal and that the purchase price and terms they’ve approved work for both you and the seller.

4. The bank’s black box. Make an offer on a normal home and you’re likely to know what the outcome will be within a few hours or a few days, at the outside. If things take longer because the seller is out of town or some such, the listing agent tells you that, and you at least know what’s going on.

Make an offer on a bank-owned property or a short sale? It’s a crap shoot – could be days, but could also, easily, be weeks or months before you know what’s going on. And no amount of calling, pleading, prodding or nudging is likely to get you much information on how your offer or the seller’s short sale application is being handled or what (if any) progress is being made. And that “black box” into which your offer disappears at the benk level is very frustrating.

Avoid the drama by: continuing your house hunt until you have an answer back. Maniacally pestering the listing agent for answers or harrassing your buyer’s broker into spending hours on hold with the bank is highly unlikely to get you any insight. (With that said, it does make sense for your agent to check in regularly – sometimes even daily – with a short sale or REO listing agent to stay updated on any developments with the property and to make sure your offer/transaction stays in the front of their mind.)

Most of the angst in these situations arises when a buyer feels they passed on properties that would have really worked for them when they pinned their hopes on a distressed home. You can only control your efforts and activities, not the bank’s. So, consult with your own broker or agent about staying proactive in viewing and even pursuing other properties until you have a firm “yes” from the bank on your short sale or REO offer. Until that time, and usually for a short time after you get the bank’s approval, you have the right to back out of the transaction if you need to (make sure your broker briefs you on precisely when your right to rescind your offer or exercise contingencies – i.e., bail – will expire).

5. Double standards. In a “regular” equity sale with no bank involvement, both buyer and seller are obligated to meet various timelines. Seller has to provide disclosures by X date, open the property to inspections – with utilities on – by Y, and close and move out by Z. REO and short sale buyers, on the other hand, are often dismayed to find that even though the bank might take weeks or months to sign or handle its deliverables, the bank will insist that the buyer show up, sign or send a check quick-like.

Avoid the drama by: chalking it up to the (admittedly irritating) way things are – the price you pay to buy from the bank. Realize that working with the bank on the bank’s terms is unavoidable when you buy a distressed property. Then, go into the deal with realistic expectations – including the expectation that the bank will drag its feet, despite expecting you to keep every deadline – and you’ll be less frustrated, and less likely to make poor decisions out of frustration.

Also, make sure you do respond in a timely manner to the bank’s requests and your obligations under the contract. I’ve seen banks capitalize on buyer delays in returning signatures and removing contingencies to accept higher offers they received in the interim. Don’t lose your home on a technicality because you assume that the bank’s lackadaisacal timelines apply to you as well.

Author: Tara Nicholle Nelson

Meyling Calero
RMG Realty Group Inc.
Lic. Real Estate Sales Associate
Short Sale Specialist
MeylingCalero@aol.com
http://www.meylingrealestate.com/
2011 Women's Council of Realtors VP of Membership
2010 Women's Council of Realtors Secretary
2009 Women's Council of Realtors Treasurer
2008 Women's Council of Realtors Ways and Means Chair

For more information on your Real Estate needs or concerns, contact Meyling at MeylingCalero@aol.com or Visit www.MeylingRealEstate.com

Renting and Foreclosure... Another reason to consider a short sale ...

2011-05-16T05:48:00.000-07:00

Submitted by Deborah Boza-Va... on 7 May 2011 - 7:05am ForeclosuresLOS ANGELES – May 6, 2011 – More than three-quarters (82 percent) of independent landlords say they would rent to someone who lost a home in foreclosure, assuming the applicant traditionally had good credit, according to a survey released today by The National Association of Independent Landlords.

“Landlords typically won’t rent to applicants with poor credit – and a foreclosure will absolutely slam someone’s scores. The exception is when they see people who have paid their bills their whole life but lost their job, can’t meet their mortgage and must hand their keys back to the bank,” says Tracey Benson, president of The National Association of Independent Landlords.

Despite recent credit problems, Benson says applicants with a foreclosure can prove good risks, chiefly because they did once own their own home. “These people are used to taking pride in where they live.”

Increasingly, mortgage defaults stem more from lost jobs rather than borrowers who had a toxic mortgage they could not afford. A thorough background check usually indicates whether financial woes are part of a recent spate of bad luck or a life-long trend.

The National Association of Independent Landlords polled 563 members from March 21 through March 25, 2011.

© 2011 Florida Realtors®

Meyling Calero
RMG Realty Group Inc.
Lic. Real Estate Sales Associate
Short Sale Specialist
MeylingCalero@aol.com
www.MeylingRealEstate.com
2011 Women's Council of Realtors VP of Membership
2010 Women's Council of Realtors Secretary
2009 Women's Council of Realtors Treasurer
2008 Women's Council of Realtors Ways and Means Chair

For more information on your Real Estate needs or concerns, contact Meyling at MeylingCalero@aol.com or Visit www.MeylingRealEstate.com

Turnaround: 4 Months and Counting?

2011-05-16T05:14:00.000-07:00

RISMEDIA, May 16, 2011— By Steve Cook - Price declines will end and average U.S. home prices will stabilize by Labor Day. Prices in even the hardest-hit markets will level out by the end of 2012.

That’s the latest prediction from the authoritative Moody’s Analytics and Fiserv, Inc, after an analysis of home price trends in 375 markets tracked by the Fiserv Case-Schiller Indexes.

Fiserv reports that home prices have fallen so far that they are at pre-bubble levels, creating affordable housing relative to income which, coupled with a slowly improving economy, will finally end price declines.
The slide in home prices has greatly improved home affordability. Relative to household income, affordability is at or close to pre-bubble levels in nearly every metro area across the U.S. This dynamic, combined with growing economic strength, leads Fiserv and Moody’s Analytics to project that average U.S. home prices will stabilize in the third quarter of this year. By the end of 2012, home prices in even the hardest-hit housing markets will level out.

However, while Fiserv and Moody’s project the national U.S. home price average will stabilize in the third quarter of 2011, a 3 percent decline is expected in the first half of this year.

“The first step toward restoring confidence in housing markets is an improvement in consumer sentiment, which we expect will increase slowly through 2011 due to stronger job gains and a falling unemployment rate,” says David Stiff, chief economist, Fiserv. “As confidence rises, the decline in home sales that started in 2006 will, finally, come to an end.”

Even as balance returns to the housing market, Fiserv Case-Shiller data forecasts the pace of recovery will be uneven across U.S. metro areas.

“Many metro areas have vast inventories of vacant homes, a consequence of both over-building during the bubble and high rates of foreclosure,” says Stiff. “New data from the 2010 U.S. Census provide estimates of the depth of the overhang of vacant homes in some markets. Between the 2000 and 2010 Censuses, the overall U.S. housing vacancy rate increased by 2.4 percentage points. In metro areas with the largest price bubbles and crashes, housing vacancy rates have jumped by 3 to 7 percentage points.”

The most stressed U.S. housing markets are characterized by unemployment rates that exceed the national average and high housing vacancy rates. Examples include Detroit, Las Vegas and Orlando, where unemployment tops 10 percent and vacancy rates are above 15 percent. Stiff noted the feedback loop that continues to exert downward pressure on home prices in these markets:

“Economic growth in these markets was highly dependent on residential real estate from 2002 to 2006, with many new jobs tied directly or indirectly to booming housing markets. When the bubble popped, these markets suffered the largest job losses. Rapidly falling employment undercut housing demand, causing home price depreciation to accelerate, leading to more job losses in residential real estate.”

The markets that escaped this dynamic are better positioned for more robust recoveries. Examples include Dallas, Milwaukee, Houston, New York, Baltimore and Pittsburgh. Stiff notes that while many of these metro areas did experience double-digit home price declines, their economic growth was more balanced during the boom years, relying less on residential construction. Today, these markets benefit from relatively lower housing vacancy and unemployment rates.

Meyling Calero
RMG Realty Group Inc.
Lic. Real Estate Sales Associate
Short Sale Specialist
MeylingCalero@aol.com
http://www.meylingrealestate.com/
2011 Women's Council of Realtors VP of Membership
2010 Women's Council of Realtors Secretary
2009 Women's Council of Realtors Treasurer
2008 Women's Council of Realtors Ways and Means Chair

For more information on your Real Estate needs or concerns, contact Meyling at MeylingCalero@aol.com or Visit www.MeylingRealEstate.com

The 5 Most Common Complaints of Short Sale and REO Buyers (and How to Avoid Them)

2011-05-06T04:49:00.001-07:00

Roughly forty percent of the homes for sale on today's market are short sales and foreclosures! Distressed properties are well known for their value (a reputation which is sometimes accurate, and sometimes not), but they also have a reputation for causing buyers to become distressed, too!

Transactional snafus, last-minute surprises and long, drawn-out escrows that never close seem to be par for the course.
Instead of avoiding these properties altogether, get educated about the most common dramas that go down in these deals, and how you can avoid falling victim.

1. Run-on (and on, and on) escrows. When you’re buying a home (or selling one, for that matter), time is absolutely of the essence. And buyers reasonably expect that the big time suck in real estate is in the house hunting process itself; seems like once you find a home you want to buy and the seller agrees to your price and terms, things should move pretty quickly, right?
Not so much, when it comes to some distressed property sales. I’ve heard tell of the occasional, swiftly-moving escrow on an REO (real estate owned - by the bank). But for the most part, these transactions take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks longer than “regular” sales, because of the extra signatures, supervisor-level approvals and even investor involvement required to seal the deal. Banks don’t have the same sense of urgency individual home sellers do, and it’s not uncommon for the people who need to sign on the dotted line to be on vacation or scattered across the country, adding days’ or weeks’ worth of time to the escrow.

And short sales are also an entirely different animal when it comes to escrow timelines. While a standard sale from an individual seller to an individual buyer might take 45 days from contract to closing, a short sale can take anywhere from 45 days to 6 or 8 months (!) to get the deal closed, after the seller has accepted the contract.

Avoid the drama by: expecting your escrow to run long, and being pleasantly surprised if it doesn’t. Expectation management is everything. Make sure you take these extended timelines into account when you’re working with your mortgage broker on the issue of when to lock your interest rate, and how long your rate locks will last. You might even need to plan on and/or set aside an allowance for the cost of extending your low interest rate, if rates are rising rapidly during the time you’re waiting for the deal to be done.

2. Bank won't take lowball offer. If I had a dollar for every time I’ve received a question from an outraged reader to the effect that a buyer has had their short sale or REO offer rejected on grounds that it was too low, even though the bank has no other offers, I could buy a foreclosure myself (admittedly, it’d be one of those $150 foreclosures in some blighted town with tax liens and no plumbing, but still).

Banks owe their shareholders and investors a duty to get as much as they can for these properties. Just because you see it’s on the market and listed as a short sale or a foreclosure doesn’t mean they’re going to give it to you for a fraction of its worth. The bank’s goal is to get a purchase price as close as possible to the home’s fair market value, as determined by the recent sales prices of similar, nearby homes, with some adjustments made for the property’s condition. Fact is, many banks would rather see the listing agent reduce the price by a moderate amount, and wait to see what offers come in, than to accept an offer 30 percent below the asking price just because there are no other offers on the table.

Avoid the drama by: working with your agent to make a realistic offer, based on recent comparable sales in the neighborhood, not just on what you think you can get away with. You can waste a lot of time, spin a lot of wheels and lose out on a lot of properties making lowball offer after lowball offer on distressed homes. Sit down with your broker or agent, review the ‘comps’ and make a smart offer that reflects a good value for you, is within your budget and is not bizarrely out of the realm of the fair market value of the property.

3. Last minute postponements/cancellations. These transactions have an uncanny way of being delayed at the last minute - or never going through at all, through no fault of the wanna-be buyer. You signed docs yesterday, put your dog in the crate this morning and just hopped in the moving truck, only to get a text from your broker that the deal didn’t close because the escrow company which was selected by the bank flubbed the checkboxes on a single sheet of paper (it happens). Or, you’ve been in contract (with the seller) on a short sale for four months, and the bank refuses the sale entirely because the seller refuses to kick even $1 of their own cash into the deal, despite having a flush savings account.

Avoid the drama by: staying as flexible as possible with your moving plans as long as possible. Best practice is to plan on some overlap between the time you can be in your last place and your scheduled move-in date. Also, if you’re in contract on a short sale, you should take the point of view that you don't have a firm deal until you get the bank’s approval of the transaction. So don’t even think about starting to make moving plans or paying for home inspections and appraisals until you know the bank has greenlit the deal and that the purchase price and terms they’ve approved work for both you and the seller.

4. The bank’s black box. Make an offer on a normal home and you’re likely to know what the outcome will be within a few hours or a few days, at the outside. If things take longer because the seller is out of town or some such, the listing agent tells you that, and you at least know what’s going on.
Make an offer on a bank-owned property or a short sale? It’s a crap shoot - could be days, but could also, easily, be weeks or months before you know what’s going on. And no amount of calling, pleading, prodding or nudging is likely to get you much information on how your offer or the seller’s short sale application is being handled or what (if any) progress is being made. And that “black box” into which your offer disappears at the bank level is very frustrating.

Avoid the drama by: continuing your house hunt until you have an answer back. Maniacally pestering the listing agent for answers or harrassing your buyer’s broker into spending hours on hold with the bank is highly unlikely to get you any insight. (With that said, it does make sense for your agent to check in regularly - sometimes even daily - with a short sale or REO listing agent to stay updated on any developments with the property and to make sure your offer/transaction stays in the front of their mind.)

Most of the angst in these situations arises when a buyer feels they passed on properties that would have really worked for them when they pinned their hopes on a distressed home. You can only control your efforts and activities, not the bank’s. So, consult with your own broker or agent about staying proactive in viewing and even pursuing other properties until you have a firm “yes” from the bank on your short sale or REO offer. Until that time, and usually for a short time after you get the bank's approval, you have the right to back out of the transaction if you need to (make sure your broker briefs you on precisely when your right to rescind your offer or exercise contingencies - i.e., bail - will expire).

5. Double standards. In a “regular” equity sale with no bank involvement, both buyer and seller are obligated to meet various timelines. Seller has to provide disclosures by X date, open the property to inspections - with utilities on - by Y, and close and move out by Z. REO and short sale buyers, on the other hand, are often dismayed to find that even though the bank might take weeks or months to sign or handle its deliverables, the bank will insist that the buyer show up, sign or send a check quick-like.
Avoid the drama by: chalking it up to the (admittedly irritating) way things are - the price you pay to buy from the bank. Realize that working with the bank on the bank’s terms is unavoidable when you buy a distressed property. Then, go into the deal with realistic expectations - including the expectation that the bank will drag its feet, despite expecting you to keep every deadline - and you’ll be less frustrated, and less likely to make poor decisions out of frustration.

Also, make sure you do respond in a timely manner to the bank’s requests and your obligations under the contract. I’ve seen banks capitalize on buyer delays in returning signatures and removing contingencies to accept higher offers they received in the interim. Don’t lose your home on a technicality because you assume that the bank’s lackadaisical timelines apply to you as well.

Article source:The 5 Most Common Complaints of Short Sale and REO Buyers (and How to Avoid Them)