Today’s Homebuyer Must Show Patience And Persistence

Housing inventory in the Southern California region is at a 3 year low. Today’s homebuyer needs to adapt a more aggressive buying strategy, continually previewing available houses for sale and consistently submitting offers. These offers should be your highest and best, based on current market value and not the listed price. It is also recommended the buyer avoids asking for any seller’s concessions such as repairs, closing costs, or home warranty. In today’s market of multiple offers, conventional loans or all cash offers are generally considered stronger than VA or FHA loans when negotiating with the bank. This creates a much larger out of pocket expense to the homebuyer and a faster closing time for the bank. Making your offers as seller friendly as possible will only enhance your opportunity to having it accepted.

The Effects of the 90 Day Foreclosure Moratorium On The California Housing Market

With the available houses for sale in Southern California already in short supply, California on June 15th 2008 enacted the California Foreclosure Prevention Act. Under this new law a lender or loan servicer must wait an additional 90 days more than normally required by law to foreclose (notice of sale) on certain mortgages. However, a lender or loan servicer can be granted an exemption if they have a loan modification program in place that meets specific criteria.

This New Law Contains Many Loop Holes

• The loan can not be made, held, serviced, or collateralized by California State or Local Housing Agency.


• This law also does not cover mortgages that have been bundled in to securities.


• It must be the first mortgage or deed of trust secured by residential property.


• Must have been recorded between January 1st 2003 and January 1st 2008.


• A notice of default has been recorded on the property.


• The residence has to be owner occupied.


• The borrower can not be in bankruptcy.

Since there are so many loop holes and the fact that most of the major banks have loan modification programs in place many homeowners will not qualify for this program. Consequently this new law should have little or no effect on bank owned homes coming on the market.

With more than 365,000 foreclosures in California since 2007 and currently an average of 80,000 to 90,000 foreclosure filings monthly there are going to be a continued supply of available REO properties for quite some time.

Reduced Housing Inventory Creates More Multiple Offers

It just seems like a few months ago there was an abundance of available properties with many offers being accepted at less than asking price. Well those days appear to be a thing of the past at least for now, unless you want to live in Lancaster or Palmdale.
Currently housing inventories are very low in many areas of Southern California with the more desirable properties receiving multiple offers. The big question is how will this affect housing prices in the long term. The last few months we've already seen a slight increase in prices. However home prices should remain stable for a while unless reduced inventories remain for an extended period of time. If inventories remain low it could cause accepted offers to become larger than the appraised value. When this event does occur, the buyer financially has to make up the difference or the seller has to reduce the selling price to meet the appraised value.
The real key to having your offer accepted is to make sure that it is high enough, but not over its appraised value. To help insure you have the greatest opportunity to having your offer accepted you should employ a real estate agent that understands the fluctuating housing market.
Lets just hope that the forecasters are correct and the flood gates will open soon resulting in properties flowing into the marketplace.

HAS THE HOUSING MARKET FINALLY HIT BOTTOM?

There are some critical signs that indicate Southern California housing prices may have reached the bottom. Many potential homebuyers may not realize that new listings (especially bank owned) are coming on the market at a much slower rate than just a few months back. This has created a domino effect of significantly reduced inventory, price stabilization, and even increased property values in certain areas. Prior to the end of last year there has been a purported government imposed moratorium on the release of bank owned houses for sale. As of this writing, there hasn’t been a relaxing of these restrictions with no noticeable increase in the housing inventory. For those buyers who have been waiting on the sidelines for their opportunity to purchase a home, now is their time to act. If the current market trend of depleted inventory remains I’m quite certain that housing prices are going to continue to escalate which will price many potential homebuyers out of the current market.

CARPE DIEM

Is This The Right Time To Invest In A Home?

Has the housing market hit bottom? Are interest rates and/or housing prices going to continue to decline? These are questions I am constantly being asked without having any concrete answers.


However there are Three Major Factors making this one of the best times to invest in real estate.


· Interest rates are at some of the lowest in history.
· Housing prices have declined in the last few years at some of the fastest levels we have ever seen.
· Banks are over-loaded with foreclosed inventory that they are very motivated to sell.


This rare combination of factors has provided a great opportunity to purchase properties at depressed prices. With the new economic stimulus package first time homebuyers are eligible to receive up to an $8,000 dollar tax credit http://www.federalhousingtaxcredit.com/. Also California home buyers who purchase new construction are eligible to receive up to an additional $10,000 dollar tax credit http://www.ftb.ca.gov/individuals/New_Home_Credit.shtml.


The housing market has experienced many price corrections in the past and in most cases home values have rebounded very quickly. There is no reason to believe this trend won’t continue to happen in today’s market. Don’t be a person who looks back five years from now and wishes they had invested in real estate.

The Five Keys to Purchasing Bank Owned Properties

The Five Keys to Purchasing Bank Owned Properties

Right now is one of the best opportunities in decades to invest real estate. Interest rates are at some of the lowest we have seen in our history. There is a large selection of available inventory, housing prices are at 7 or 8 year lows and banks are very motivated to sell off their REO properties. Listed below are the 5 key points to purchasing bank owned properties.

1. Get pre-approved for a home loan with a direct lender to determine the maximum purchase amount the bank will lend you. This is essential prior to any offer being submitted.

2. Request a free foreclosure list from a real estate agent or REO Broker.

3. Drive by your desired listings and choose the properties you would like to preview and/or get additional information on.

4. Call a real estate agent or REO Broker to schedule an appointment to preview your preferred properties and receive specific details on how to make an offer. Have your agent or broker run comparables on the area to determine a fair market price.

5. Ask your agent or broker to write a through offer, complete with a pre-approval letter, credit scores (FICO), earnest money deposit and submit the offer to the REO listing agent and bank.

The banks main consideration when accepting an offer is their bottom line from the sale and how quickly the property closes escrow.

Rich Nichols, Reo Broker Assoc.
Website: http://www.richnicholshomes.com/

Government Moratorium on Foreclosed Properties

Have you recently noticed there are a limited number of listings for REO (Real Estate Owned) properties? There is a logical explanation for this housing situation. Since November 2008 the US government has been designing a housing bill. During this process they have placed a moratorium on many financial institutions and government agencies, such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (companies that would benefit from this bill) from introducing any new REO listings in to the market place.

There are currently thousands of properties in inventory waiting to be released for sale. These properties will become available as soon as the housing bill has been passed by the House and the Senate and signed in to law by President Obama.

In the interim Fannie Mae has introduced a new REO loan program thru their HomePath, designed to assist homebuyers who would like to purchase Fannie Mae properties.

The key benefits of the HomePath Mortgage Loan:

· Only 3% down required on primary residences.
· Only 10% down on 1-2 unit investment properties.
· No mortgage insurance required (PMI).
· No property appraisal required.
· Get up to 6% in seller concessions on primary residence properties.

To qualify you must have a completed loan package:

1. Pre-approval letter from a verifiable direct lender.
2. Credit score (FICO).
3. Proof of income.
4. Proof of funds.
5. Employment verification.