HUD is the largest owner of single family homes in the US and is trying to sell them as quickly as possibly.
The Government is the listing agent's client, you are just another buyer, and they can always sell the property to someone else.
Its HUD’s way or the highway.
You purchase the property as is, with no repairs and no guaranties. However, Countrywide does offer, if disclosed by HUD, 203k loans, which roll in repairs into the loan.
There is a minimum price HUD will consider on all properties (typically, 92% of offer price)
You must have a Real Estate Agent place a HUD bid. The agent must have a HUD NAID number that is currently registered and active.
You must close within the allotted time frame. If not you risk having to pay extra extension fees
The biggest mistakes buyers make is not using a good lender that has experience closing HUD property loans or they don't meet HUD requirements.
Saturday, March 31, 2007
First Time Home Buyer's: Free Money Available!
The list below, are cities in the DFW area that currently offer grant programs (free money!!!) for the first time home buyer.
First Time Home Buyer: Money Available Currently*
Arlington
Balch Springs
Hutchins
Cedar Hill (Dallas County Part)
Lancaster
Cockrell Hill
McKinney
Coppell (Dallas County Part)
Plano
Dallas
Rowlett (Dallas County Part)
Farmers Branch
Sachse
Frisco
Seagoville
Garland
University Park
Glenn Heights (Dallas County Part)
Wilmer
*subject to change
First Time Home Buyer: Money Coming Soon!
Allen
Carrollton (Dallas County Part)
Duncanville
Grand Prairie (Dallas County Part)
Irving
Mesquite
Richardson (Dallas County Part)
First Time Home Buyer!
There is also money available for anywhere in Texas provided that the buyer’s total household income is less than $39,900 and they have not owned a home for over three years.
Teachers!
Money is also available for anywhere in Texas provided that the buyer’s household income for a family of two is a maximum of $66,000 and for a family of three the maximum is $76,000.
My goal is to be a part of your team as well as a resource of information to realize your dream of owning a home. Call today! (214) 244-3146
First Time Home Buyer: Money Available Currently*
Arlington
Balch Springs
Hutchins
Cedar Hill (Dallas County Part)
Lancaster
Cockrell Hill
McKinney
Coppell (Dallas County Part)
Plano
Dallas
Rowlett (Dallas County Part)
Farmers Branch
Sachse
Frisco
Seagoville
Garland
University Park
Glenn Heights (Dallas County Part)
Wilmer
*subject to change
First Time Home Buyer: Money Coming Soon!
Allen
Carrollton (Dallas County Part)
Duncanville
Grand Prairie (Dallas County Part)
Irving
Mesquite
Richardson (Dallas County Part)
First Time Home Buyer!
There is also money available for anywhere in Texas provided that the buyer’s total household income is less than $39,900 and they have not owned a home for over three years.
Teachers!
Money is also available for anywhere in Texas provided that the buyer’s household income for a family of two is a maximum of $66,000 and for a family of three the maximum is $76,000.
My goal is to be a part of your team as well as a resource of information to realize your dream of owning a home. Call today! (214) 244-3146
Thursday, March 29, 2007
HOMESTEAD EXEMPTIONS
Reduce your taxes by utilizing "Homestead Exemptions" through your appraisal district, you can reduce a portion of property taxes assessed against your home. The best part...It's simple!
For example, visit http://www.dallascad.org and click "resources and forms" then choose "application for residential homestead exemption" Print. Fill out and sign. Mail in.
***DO NOT FALL FOR SCHEMES THAT ADVERTISE THAT A 3RD PARTY WILL SAVE YOU TIME AND MONEY BY DOING IT FOR YOU FOR $30, $40, OR EVEN $50.
THIS IS A TOTALLY FREE PROCESS AND SHOULDN'T COST YOU ANYMORE THAN THE PRICE OF A STAMP!!!
Appraisal District Websites:
Denton County http://www.dentoncad.org/
Dallas County http://www.dallascad.org/
Tarrant County http://www.tad.org/
Collin County http://www.collincad.org/
For example, visit http://www.dallascad.org and click "resources and forms" then choose "application for residential homestead exemption" Print. Fill out and sign. Mail in.
***DO NOT FALL FOR SCHEMES THAT ADVERTISE THAT A 3RD PARTY WILL SAVE YOU TIME AND MONEY BY DOING IT FOR YOU FOR $30, $40, OR EVEN $50.
THIS IS A TOTALLY FREE PROCESS AND SHOULDN'T COST YOU ANYMORE THAN THE PRICE OF A STAMP!!!
Appraisal District Websites:
Denton County http://www.dentoncad.org/
Dallas County http://www.dallascad.org/
Tarrant County http://www.tad.org/
Collin County http://www.collincad.org/
Monday, March 26, 2007
How To Buy A HUD
With all the HUD foreclosures in the area, there have been multiple phone calls from folks who are not familiar with buying foreclosed properties. In my continual quest to provide you with information, I hope that you find the following helpful:
To find foreclosed properties:
(HUD homes only)
www.homesales.gov(Consolidated listing of foreclosures available from HUD, VA, and USDA)
Helpful HUD Tips:
THREE TYPES OF HUD HOMES
An independent FHA-approved appraisal and an inspection are generally completed without two weeks of acquisition of the property, and the reports are sent to the Regional Office. A Property Condition Report (PCR) is then listed and available in the bidding system for buyers and brokers to download.
Important: The PCR should not be used in place of an inspection performed by a licensed inspector.
A Disposition Plan is determined, and the house is initially listed at the appraised value, according to the FHA financing category that is appropriate, given the current condition of the property. It is important to understand the listing codes and how financing is affected.
Insurable (IN)- Properties listed in this category appear to meet FHA 203(b) financing requirements. No obvious repairs are necessary for HUD to insure an FHA loan to a qualified Purchaser.
Insurable with Repair Escrow (IE)- Properties listed in this category are eligible for a 203(b) FHA loan with required “minimum property standard” (MPS) repairs totaling less than $5000 to be made by the Purchaser, financed by the FHA lender. If a 203(b) FHA is the financing, the repair escrow must be use for the needed work specified in the listing. In completing the Sales Contract (HUD-9548), the escrow amount is NOT deducted from the net to HUD to derive the amount that will be entered on line #7, NOR is it added to line #3, the purchase price. There is a separate line in Item #4 for the repair escrow amount to be noted.
The lender making the new FHA 203 (b) loan establishes an escrow account for the amount of the repairs. The amount given with the listing includes a 10% contingency. After close of escrow, the lender will inspect work as it is completed on the house and distribute the repair monies as appropriate within ninety (90) days. The cost of the repairs are included in the loan amount and repaid by the borrower as part of the house payment. Any funds in the escrow account not used for the repairs will reduce the unpaid principal balance of the loan.
Note that the repair escrow only applies to FHA 203(b) financing. If non-FHA financing is used, or if a cash purchase is made for an IE property, the repair escrow does not apply.
Uninsurable (UI)- Properties listed UI, uninsurable, need more extensive repairs after close of escrow and are deemed not eligible for FHA mortgage insurance in their “as-is” condition. Cash, or other financing not involving FHA, is often used to purchase UI properties. However, a special acquisition and rehabilitation FHA loan program called 203(k) is frequently an excellent source of financing for homes in the owner-occupied category.
Note on FHA 203(k) Financing: UI properties are generally eligible for the FHA 203(k) loan program (most condos are excluded, unless specifically noted otherwise). Also, any IN or IE property may be purchased subject to 203(k) financing, instead of 203(b), if the house and the owner-occupant Purchaser’s credit justify making improvements in excess of $5,000. Through this program, their lender can provide funds for rehabilitation along with the purchase mortgage.
Did You Know? More HUD Home Tips
v There are currently 3000 Foreclosures in D/FW per month (that is 100 per day).
v FHA loans (when purchasing a HUD Home)- Can ONLY use the HUD appraisal. Do NOT bid above the listed price unless the buyer wants to pay the difference out of pocket.
v FHA Insured with Escrows- Need bids/Invoices prior to closing. Escrow repair $ is rolled into loan.
v NO DAPS. Can use FTHB programs, but not recommended! Trust me J
v VA- Watch about repairs. If VA appraisal calls for repairs, HUD will not allow them to be fixed prior to closing so your buyer is in a “Catch 22” situation.
v Conventional – Must have a new appraisal. Can ask original appraiser to do so, but will cost.
v Time Line of Purchasing and papers to the title company- 45 days max from time HUD signed on the contract. Lender must have papers at the title company 10 days at the title company
v Investors Buying Uninsured- Will lose earnest money if back out.
Friday, March 23, 2007
Subprime Loan Meltdown Engulfs Even Borrowers With Good Credit.
Okay! I promise that I will not bombard you with gloom and doom, but this article that came across the wire this morning was very good at explaining the changes that we are seeing in the Alt A (the loans between A and subprime).
The subprime credit crunch is beginning to ensnare even borrowers with good credit.
Lenders are increasingly refusing to lend to homebuyers who can't make a down payment of more than 5 percent, especially if they won't document their income. Until recently such borrowers qualified for so-called Alt A mortgages, which rank between prime and subprime in terms of risk. Last year the category accounted for about 20 percent of the $3 trillion of U.S. mortgages, about the same as subprime loans, according to Credit Suisse Group.
``It's going to be very difficult, if not impossible, to do a no-money-down loan at any credit score,'' said Alex Gemici, president of Parsippany, New Jersey-based mortgage bank Montgomery Mortgage Capital Corp. Companies that buy the loans ``are all saying if they haven't eliminated them yet, they'll eliminate them shortly.''
Tighter lending standards may slash subprime mortgage sales in half this year and Alt A mortgages by a quarter, according to Ivy Zelman, a Credit Suisse analyst in New York who covers homebuilders. The new requirements will force some prospective homebuyers to save more money for a down payment or risk being denied credit.
Pulling Back
Bear Stearns Cos., General Electric Co.'s WMC Mortgage, Countrywide Financial Corp., IndyMac Bancorp Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Credit Suisse have all said in the last two weeks they're pulling back from buying Alt A mortgages sold with no down payment or in a refinancing of the house's entire value. Such companies facilitate the mortgage market by buying loans and repackaging them for sale as bonds to buyers such as insurers and hedge funds.
``We've been warned,'' said Cheryl Hand, manager of Prudential New Jersey Properties' office in Manalapan, New Jersey. She said she's hoping a client of her realty brokerage who's been approved to buy a home with nothing down won't have the loan quashed before the closing.
Mortgages are categorized as Alt A when they fall just short of the typical standards of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two largest U.S. mortgage companies. Besides some loans requiring no down payment or proof of income, they are often made to buy a second home, a rental unit or to speculate on real estate. Also often falling into the category are loans that are ``option'' adjustable-rate mortgages, whose minimum payments can fail to cover the interest owed.
Defaults Rising
Consumers borrowed 100 percent of their home's value on about 18 percent of Alt A loans made last year, according to Bear Stearns, the largest mortgage-bond underwriter. Another 16 percent had loan-to-value ratios above 90 percent as well as limited documentation, they say. The category comprised about 5 percent of new loans in 2002, according to Credit Suisse.
Late payments of at least 60 days and defaults on Alt A mortgages have risen about as fast as on subprime ones, to about 2.4 percent, according to bond analysts at UBS AG. Loans in the category made to borrowers with low credit scores, equity and documentation are doing about as badly as subprime loans, according to Citigroup Inc. and Bear Stearns analysts.
Rapid credit tightening that's ``been isolated to the subprime world has really migrated'' in the past two weeks to Alt A offerings that involve borrowing nearly all of a home's worth, said Brian Simon, senior vice president at Mount Laurel, New Jersey-based mortgage bank Freedom Mortgage Corp. ``We're just hopeful it will settle down soon.''
California Prices
A borrower would have to come up with $23,750 to make a 5 percent down payment on a typical home in California, based on a $472,000 median price estimated by DataQuick Information Systems in La Jolla, California. She'd have to show enough income to pay $2,730.87 a month with a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage at 6.15 percent.
``It doesn't help somebody to get into a home when they can't afford to make the payments and continue living there,'' said Ann McGinley, owner of Action Mortgage, a brokerage in Santa Rosa, California, that's turned away a ``few buyers'' with good credit who may have been able to get loans last year.
While loans issued only on the basis of the borrower's ``stated'' income can be abused, they're appropriate for a divorcee with alimony who ``doesn't want to show an underwriter her paperwork because it's private'' or a borrower with a reliable roommate, she said. ``I personally have made a couple of real estate agents angry by advising people to not buy.''
Limits Welcomed
Some lenders say it's high time that buyers are discouraged from buying real estate with no money down.
``Could we have a little skin in the game from the borrower, please,'' said Rick Soukoulis, chief executive officer at LoanCity, a San Jose, California-based lender that stopped making mortgages last week to customers who want to borrow more than 95 percent of the value of their house due to the shrinking secondary market. ``Something to lose if you go into default?'' LoanCity, which made about $6 billion in mortgages last year, went out of business on March 20.
The slump in subprime loans has ``drastically eroded'' appetite for bonds backed by Alt A loans, according to a March 9 report by Credit Suisse. The extra yield that investors typically demand on the parts of the securitizations with the lowest investment-grade ratings have risen to 3.50 percentage points over the one-month London interbank offered rate from 2.15 percentage points in September, according to Bear Stearns.
Resale Woes
``If you couldn't sell something, you wouldn't do it either,'' UBS analyst David Liu in New York said. Part of the problem is falling demand for ``piggyback'' home-equity loans used to make down payments, he said.
New York-based Citigroup will no longer buy home-equity loans made to borrowers who won't prove their incomes and want more than 95 percent of their home's value, according to e-mails from salespeople. Mark Rogers, a spokesman, declined to comment.
New York-based Bear Stearns, the third-largest Alt A lender according to newsletter National Mortgage News, last week stopped buying such loans without down payments of at least 5 percent. For borrowers not fully documenting incomes or assets, the maximum loan-to-value ratio will be 90 percent.
Bear Stearns' EMC Mortgage unit told loan sellers of the changes on March 13, giving them a day's notice. On Feb. 26, EMC said it would start requiring down payments of only 5 percent in the low-documentation category, giving sellers until March 12 to submit loans under the old standards. On March 1, the deadline moved to March 6. EMC didn't change ``full documentation'' programs then.
People with poor or limited credit records or high debt burdens can take out only subprime mortgages, and typically pay rates at least two or three percentage points above prime loans. Subprime lenders have been increasingly raising their standards since mid-2006, and started cutting out nothing-down lending in late January, Montgomery's Gemici said. People who qualify for prime mortgages don't experience any trouble getting a loan.
Lower Standards
Bear Stearns will finance 25 percent to 30 percent fewer non-prime mortgages this year as it tightens credit, Chief Financial Officer Sam Molinaro said on the company's earnings call last week.
``Last year, we did about 50 percent less in subprime than we did the year before,'' Mary Haggerty, co-head of Bear Stearns' mortgage finance department, said in an interview, adding that it has been tightening Alt A standards since December. ``We always try to be ahead of the market.''
Countrywide Financial, the nation's top home lender, this month stopped making any loans with down payments of less than 5 percent when borrowers are ``stating'' both income and assets.
Since they have good credit, most borrowers able to take out loans with little down and high monthly payments relative to their pay or potentially rising ones knew the risks, Countrywide Financial CEO Angelo Mozilo said in an interview.
``People are adults and made choices in their lives because they wanted to own a home of their own,'' Mozilo said. ``America's great because people can make those decisions for themselves. The complaints about the loans only came when the opportunity for enrichment was gone'' because home prices flattened out.
By Jody Shenn
The subprime credit crunch is beginning to ensnare even borrowers with good credit.
Lenders are increasingly refusing to lend to homebuyers who can't make a down payment of more than 5 percent, especially if they won't document their income. Until recently such borrowers qualified for so-called Alt A mortgages, which rank between prime and subprime in terms of risk. Last year the category accounted for about 20 percent of the $3 trillion of U.S. mortgages, about the same as subprime loans, according to Credit Suisse Group.
``It's going to be very difficult, if not impossible, to do a no-money-down loan at any credit score,'' said Alex Gemici, president of Parsippany, New Jersey-based mortgage bank Montgomery Mortgage Capital Corp. Companies that buy the loans ``are all saying if they haven't eliminated them yet, they'll eliminate them shortly.''
Tighter lending standards may slash subprime mortgage sales in half this year and Alt A mortgages by a quarter, according to Ivy Zelman, a Credit Suisse analyst in New York who covers homebuilders. The new requirements will force some prospective homebuyers to save more money for a down payment or risk being denied credit.
Pulling Back
Bear Stearns Cos., General Electric Co.'s WMC Mortgage, Countrywide Financial Corp., IndyMac Bancorp Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Credit Suisse have all said in the last two weeks they're pulling back from buying Alt A mortgages sold with no down payment or in a refinancing of the house's entire value. Such companies facilitate the mortgage market by buying loans and repackaging them for sale as bonds to buyers such as insurers and hedge funds.
``We've been warned,'' said Cheryl Hand, manager of Prudential New Jersey Properties' office in Manalapan, New Jersey. She said she's hoping a client of her realty brokerage who's been approved to buy a home with nothing down won't have the loan quashed before the closing.
Mortgages are categorized as Alt A when they fall just short of the typical standards of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two largest U.S. mortgage companies. Besides some loans requiring no down payment or proof of income, they are often made to buy a second home, a rental unit or to speculate on real estate. Also often falling into the category are loans that are ``option'' adjustable-rate mortgages, whose minimum payments can fail to cover the interest owed.
Defaults Rising
Consumers borrowed 100 percent of their home's value on about 18 percent of Alt A loans made last year, according to Bear Stearns, the largest mortgage-bond underwriter. Another 16 percent had loan-to-value ratios above 90 percent as well as limited documentation, they say. The category comprised about 5 percent of new loans in 2002, according to Credit Suisse.
Late payments of at least 60 days and defaults on Alt A mortgages have risen about as fast as on subprime ones, to about 2.4 percent, according to bond analysts at UBS AG. Loans in the category made to borrowers with low credit scores, equity and documentation are doing about as badly as subprime loans, according to Citigroup Inc. and Bear Stearns analysts.
Rapid credit tightening that's ``been isolated to the subprime world has really migrated'' in the past two weeks to Alt A offerings that involve borrowing nearly all of a home's worth, said Brian Simon, senior vice president at Mount Laurel, New Jersey-based mortgage bank Freedom Mortgage Corp. ``We're just hopeful it will settle down soon.''
California Prices
A borrower would have to come up with $23,750 to make a 5 percent down payment on a typical home in California, based on a $472,000 median price estimated by DataQuick Information Systems in La Jolla, California. She'd have to show enough income to pay $2,730.87 a month with a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage at 6.15 percent.
``It doesn't help somebody to get into a home when they can't afford to make the payments and continue living there,'' said Ann McGinley, owner of Action Mortgage, a brokerage in Santa Rosa, California, that's turned away a ``few buyers'' with good credit who may have been able to get loans last year.
While loans issued only on the basis of the borrower's ``stated'' income can be abused, they're appropriate for a divorcee with alimony who ``doesn't want to show an underwriter her paperwork because it's private'' or a borrower with a reliable roommate, she said. ``I personally have made a couple of real estate agents angry by advising people to not buy.''
Limits Welcomed
Some lenders say it's high time that buyers are discouraged from buying real estate with no money down.
``Could we have a little skin in the game from the borrower, please,'' said Rick Soukoulis, chief executive officer at LoanCity, a San Jose, California-based lender that stopped making mortgages last week to customers who want to borrow more than 95 percent of the value of their house due to the shrinking secondary market. ``Something to lose if you go into default?'' LoanCity, which made about $6 billion in mortgages last year, went out of business on March 20.
The slump in subprime loans has ``drastically eroded'' appetite for bonds backed by Alt A loans, according to a March 9 report by Credit Suisse. The extra yield that investors typically demand on the parts of the securitizations with the lowest investment-grade ratings have risen to 3.50 percentage points over the one-month London interbank offered rate from 2.15 percentage points in September, according to Bear Stearns.
Resale Woes
``If you couldn't sell something, you wouldn't do it either,'' UBS analyst David Liu in New York said. Part of the problem is falling demand for ``piggyback'' home-equity loans used to make down payments, he said.
New York-based Citigroup will no longer buy home-equity loans made to borrowers who won't prove their incomes and want more than 95 percent of their home's value, according to e-mails from salespeople. Mark Rogers, a spokesman, declined to comment.
New York-based Bear Stearns, the third-largest Alt A lender according to newsletter National Mortgage News, last week stopped buying such loans without down payments of at least 5 percent. For borrowers not fully documenting incomes or assets, the maximum loan-to-value ratio will be 90 percent.
Bear Stearns' EMC Mortgage unit told loan sellers of the changes on March 13, giving them a day's notice. On Feb. 26, EMC said it would start requiring down payments of only 5 percent in the low-documentation category, giving sellers until March 12 to submit loans under the old standards. On March 1, the deadline moved to March 6. EMC didn't change ``full documentation'' programs then.
People with poor or limited credit records or high debt burdens can take out only subprime mortgages, and typically pay rates at least two or three percentage points above prime loans. Subprime lenders have been increasingly raising their standards since mid-2006, and started cutting out nothing-down lending in late January, Montgomery's Gemici said. People who qualify for prime mortgages don't experience any trouble getting a loan.
Lower Standards
Bear Stearns will finance 25 percent to 30 percent fewer non-prime mortgages this year as it tightens credit, Chief Financial Officer Sam Molinaro said on the company's earnings call last week.
``Last year, we did about 50 percent less in subprime than we did the year before,'' Mary Haggerty, co-head of Bear Stearns' mortgage finance department, said in an interview, adding that it has been tightening Alt A standards since December. ``We always try to be ahead of the market.''
Countrywide Financial, the nation's top home lender, this month stopped making any loans with down payments of less than 5 percent when borrowers are ``stating'' both income and assets.
Since they have good credit, most borrowers able to take out loans with little down and high monthly payments relative to their pay or potentially rising ones knew the risks, Countrywide Financial CEO Angelo Mozilo said in an interview.
``People are adults and made choices in their lives because they wanted to own a home of their own,'' Mozilo said. ``America's great because people can make those decisions for themselves. The complaints about the loans only came when the opportunity for enrichment was gone'' because home prices flattened out.
By Jody Shenn
Recent Changes in Lending.
The last couple of weeks has been really crazy in the mortgage industry, but I did not want you to think that the mortgage lending world has come to an end. In my quest to keep you updated, I wanted to clarify what we are seeing in the industry.
Subprime Companies- These companies will continue to tighten their guidelines. No longer will we be see anyone who "fogs a mirror" get a loan. Most 100% financing has gone away in the subprime world in the past 30 days, unless the buyer has a 640 credit score or higher, going full documentation (i.e., paystubs, w2s, etc). It will become harder and harder to find stated subprime without 5-10% down.
Alt A- (These are the "boutique" type of loans, i.e., stated income/stated assets, no doc, etc). Because of the market turn and the foreclosures, we will see these types of programs become very high credit score driven. We are already seeing the No Doc loans at 100% disappear rapidly and the guidelines for stated assets become extremely strict.
FHA- We will see FHA become much more strong in our industry due to the subprime industry decline. This is not a bad thing because many of those buyers could have been FHA buyers anyway, but the loan officer did not understand how to work with FHA and it was easier to put them in subprime. What we will see is inexperienced loan officers trying to work FHA and really messing them up. Make certain that you trust a lender who knows FHA.
Freddie/Fannie- We have not seen yet a lot of changes in the A world other than the 2nd liens have become expensive and more strict on their guidelines. I feeling is that we will see a tightening in the DU and LP approvals (Fannie Mae and Freddie Macs auto-approval services) very quickly.
*Source: Linda Davidson of The Davidson Group at Service 1st Mortgage (972) 278-3400
www.davidsongroup.net
Subprime Companies- These companies will continue to tighten their guidelines. No longer will we be see anyone who "fogs a mirror" get a loan. Most 100% financing has gone away in the subprime world in the past 30 days, unless the buyer has a 640 credit score or higher, going full documentation (i.e., paystubs, w2s, etc). It will become harder and harder to find stated subprime without 5-10% down.
Alt A- (These are the "boutique" type of loans, i.e., stated income/stated assets, no doc, etc). Because of the market turn and the foreclosures, we will see these types of programs become very high credit score driven. We are already seeing the No Doc loans at 100% disappear rapidly and the guidelines for stated assets become extremely strict.
FHA- We will see FHA become much more strong in our industry due to the subprime industry decline. This is not a bad thing because many of those buyers could have been FHA buyers anyway, but the loan officer did not understand how to work with FHA and it was easier to put them in subprime. What we will see is inexperienced loan officers trying to work FHA and really messing them up. Make certain that you trust a lender who knows FHA.
Freddie/Fannie- We have not seen yet a lot of changes in the A world other than the 2nd liens have become expensive and more strict on their guidelines. I feeling is that we will see a tightening in the DU and LP approvals (Fannie Mae and Freddie Macs auto-approval services) very quickly.
*Source: Linda Davidson of The Davidson Group at Service 1st Mortgage (972) 278-3400
www.davidsongroup.net
Thursday, March 08, 2007
Remodel With Care*
Some remodeling jobs certainly pay off better than others, according to the 2003 Cost vs. Value Report published by Remodeling magazine. Adding a 300-square-foot deck might add more value to a home than the cost of the job, while other improvements may not be worth the trouble.
Overall, midrange bathroom renovations paid off well for homeowners (90% of costs recouped), while kitchen remodels paid for about 75% of their costs. Whatever project you may embark on, stay within the scale and value of the neighborhood. Nobody wants the most expensive house on the block, nor should they shoehorn a five-bedroom house on a street of bungalows. Also, stay true to the style of your home. If a future sale is even remotely in your plans, avoid renovations that compromise a home’s selling points. For example, a two-car garage may indeed be the perfect size for a kids’ playroom, but is it worth losing the selling power of the garage?
*Soure: TexarRealtors.com
Overall, midrange bathroom renovations paid off well for homeowners (90% of costs recouped), while kitchen remodels paid for about 75% of their costs. Whatever project you may embark on, stay within the scale and value of the neighborhood. Nobody wants the most expensive house on the block, nor should they shoehorn a five-bedroom house on a street of bungalows. Also, stay true to the style of your home. If a future sale is even remotely in your plans, avoid renovations that compromise a home’s selling points. For example, a two-car garage may indeed be the perfect size for a kids’ playroom, but is it worth losing the selling power of the garage?
*Soure: TexarRealtors.com
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