10 Reasons to Buy A Short Sale

A Short Sale is a process in which the seller and sellers lender agree to sell the property for less than what is owed on the property.

1. More Inventory! - In August 2010 the Tucson Short Sale inventory represented approximately 14% of the available homes. This gives the buyer over 1138 more homes to choose from.

2.  Not as much competition for the home. It is not uncommon to have multiple bids on a foreclosure and for it to sell for more than the list price.

Via Leesa Finely. Zillor has emerged as a leader in where home buyers and sellers look for information. It is a place where folks can find listings, but it definitely doesn't replace the Real Estate Agent.

Smart agents use Zillow to continue to increase their lisings exposure to the maximum amount of people.

Over the past month or so we have been working with Jack Pratt Signs (on Active Rain) to come up with a new logo and a new sign.

I found Monte Pratt on Active Rain and made contact and discussed what we were looking for. Basically, we were looking for a custom sign to make our listings stand out from the run-of-the-mill real estate signed used by most agents.

Monte put us in contact with his design folks to first start working on a custom logo and then once the custom logo was complete, then ...

Changes to FHA Mortgages!

On September 7, 2010, FHA will be changing the Mortgage Insurance Premiums that they charge to borrowers using FHA financing.

They will be decreasing the Up-Front Mortgage Insurance Premium from 2.25% to 1.0 (usually financed), but increasing the monthly Mortgage Insurance from 0.55% to 0.85% - 0.90% annually.

The monthly Mortgage Insurance change will increase a borrower's monthly payment approximately $22 per $100,000 borrowed at today's interest rates.

Manufactured Home Lending Update

Nationally Manufactured Housing made up of nearly a quarter of all new homes sold for less than $200,000 last year.

Now, notice that I said ‘Manufactured Home’ versus ‘Mobile Home’. What is the difference? It has do with the building codes in which the home was constructed. Prior to 1976 non-site built homes are called ‘Mobile Homes’ and post 1976 are called ‘Manufactured Housing’. There are also ‘Modular Buildings’ which are constructed to a commercial building code and are fairly rare in residential use in Arizona.

Recently FHA made some changes to manufactured housing lending guidelines, something that has not been done since 1992.

There are two types of loans available for manufactured or mobile homes. These are for homes in which the buyer does not secure the loan with the land (personal property or Chattel loan) or a regular conventional loan.

Because buyers of manufactured homes are typically seen as a higher risk, lenders typically charge up to a full ¾ point more for manufactured home loan versus a site built home. This obviously puts downward pressure on the manufactured home price or resale value.

In the past Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would not buy ‘Chattel’ loans, which means that few lenders would make these types of loans.

However, recent changes by FHA now indicate that they would insure up to 90% of the lender’s losses on each loan, making it more likely lenders will make these types of loans. FHA has raised the limits it will insure to $70,000 from $48,600 for chattel loans and $92,900 from $64,800 on a loan involving both a home and land.

This is great news for the manufactured housing market. This should entice more institutions to make loans for manufactured housing. If you are working with a buyer or a seller, it is imperative that the agent has a lender that is a SPECIALIST in manufactured home lending. This type of lending is very complicated and you need someone very experience and knowledgeable.

Back in 1987 in an international environmental agreement, the United States began the phase-out of ozone depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFC's). The agreement has been modified a couple of times and phase out schedules modified. In addition, it has now been agreed to phase out hydrochloroflurocarbons (HCFC). HCFC's are less damaging to the ozone, but still do damage.

What does all this mean to us real estate agents ...

The Wall Street Journal reported that two studies, one conducted by John Burns Real Estate Consulting Group and Standard & Poor's Financial Services, both conclude that most efforts to modify loans will only delay, not prevent, foreclosure.

The John Burns study indicated that five million houses and condominiums  will go into foreclosure and will re-appear on the market over the next few years.   In addition, the 'Shadow Inventory'

On January 15, 2010 HUD announced that it was implementing a temporary waiver of their 90 Day Seasoning Rule to help accelerate the resale of foreclosed and distressed properties.

In the past when investors bought a property to renovate and resell there was a 90 day waiting period before that property could qualify to be sold using an FHA loan.   This waiting period was also called 'Seasoning'.    In the ...

Recently the US Government has outlined some new programs that may change the way Banks and other lenders handle their Short Sales.

On December 1st the Treasury Department outlined a program to attempt to streamline the Short Sale process which has varied considerably from lender to lender. The program attempts to set nationally uniform document, timelines and financial incentives.

Buyers are often frustrated by the length of time it takes to get a short sale decision. Sometimes after waiting for months the seller and lender can't come to an agreement on the terms and ...

As a follow up to my last blog on the Tucson Rental Tax proposition, the City Council voted on January 12th  6 to 0 to not pass a rental tax.

It appears a huge number of people came out against the tax which pitted renters against public safety.

The City of Tucson announced that major cuts in Police and Fire protection is necessary to balance the current budget deficit. The "Landlord Tax" surfaced after community the ferocious public outcry when the City Council announced it was considering the public safety cuts. Tucson's City Manager Mike Letcher ...