remax gateway

Looking to Buy a ‘Fixer-Upper’? The 203k Program Can Help Make It Happen

Leave a comment

Today’s real estate market presents a lot of opportunity for interested home
buyers—with the growing supply of foreclosure properties and short sales, there
are certainly some great deals to be had.

The problem in buying a “distressed” property, however, is that these homes are
often damaged due to lack of maintenance or prolonged vacancy. So while the
price tag might be right, the investment necessary to make the home livable
might just push buyers well beyond their budgets.

As a member of the Top 5 in Real Estate Network®, however, I have access to the
latest information on mortgage and financing options. One particular option
that is providing hope for many of today’s home buyers is HUD’s FHA 203k
program, a loan that enables buyers to not only secure a mortgage, but receive
the funds necessary to improve the home as well.

Here
are five facts about the 203k program to help you determine if it might be the
right fit for you:

1. The
FHA Section 203k program was originally introduced by HUD
in 1978 as a program to rehabilitate and repair single-family homes. The 203k
is a single mortgage loan that provides funds to purchase a home and make
repairs and improvements. A simpler version, the Streamline 203k, was
introduced in 2005. This version offers less documentation and lower loan fees
for renovations that don’t exceed $35,000.

2. In
today’s market, conventional financing, which often requires
20% – 25% down on a home and a perfect credit score, is often hard to come by.
However, with less-than-perfect credit and as little as 3.5% down, you can get
an FHA loan, such as the 203k.

3. The
203k approval process is a little more complicated than a
conventional loan. For example, you’re required to secure renovation costs from
an established, licensed contractor and deliver a package of the proper
paperwork to the lender to secure FHA approval. Make sure you work with an
agent—like a member of Top 5—who is well-versed in the 203k program, or who can
connect you with a lender that is.

4. The
203k loan is not just for foreclosure or distressed properties.
More than 80% of the homes in America were built before 1990—that’s over 100
million homes that are 20 years old or older—and almost every one is in need of
some amount of repair and updating. The 203k loan, therefore, offers advantages
for almost any home purchase.

5. The
203k loan is not just for home purchases but can be used to
finance a home improvement, as well!

For complete details on the HUD 203k program, you can visit www.fhainfo.com/fha203k.htm.
Please feel free to leave a comment or e-mail
me, since this information can be hard to digest and confusing.

Be Careful What You Read

Leave a comment

The Northern Virginia real estate market remains strong for
both buyers and sellers.  Although
inventory levels have increased slightly over the last few weeks – more houses
are selling as well!  Our absorption rate
remains steady at a 1.8 month supply of houses! 

Be careful what you read. 
In a recent article, it was noted by Fox
Business that new homes sales had dropped to record lows.  In our area, builders are seeing robust sales
and tremendous activity.  We have said it
before and will continue to say that we are in the best real estate market in
the nation – take what you see and what you hear about real estate with a grain
of salt because we are different and good news doesn’t sell!  We put a condo on the market in Manassas on Friday of last week and it was sold by Sunday –
the market is HOT!

For the best in real estate advice and news, please call us
to hear the true information about our market. 
We want our clients to be the most informed and up to date with our
local housing market.  We have the most
current stats, data and information on financing as well as the home buyer tax credit and
how it can affect you so feel free to call today!  We are here to help.  The Results Realty Group – 703-652-5777.

Shopping for a Condo? Ask These 4 Questions before You Buy

Leave a comment

Condominium homes have always been, and will likely
always be, an efficient and economical route to becoming a first-time
homeowner. They can offer the comfort, prestige, and even luxury appointments
that apartment living may lack, often at a cost that is not much different than
rent. With the current first-time home buyer tax credit and the deadline for
the move-up tax credit fast approaching, I advise you move fast on any condo
purchase you may be considering.


With my experience as Member of the Top 5 in Real Estate Network®, I am well
aware that not all condominiums are the same, however, so make sure you ask the
following four questions before you buy:

What will you own?
Read the bylaws and be sure you understand what you will be responsible for and
what belongs to the condo association. Will you own the boat dock at the back
of your unit? Can you elect to build a spa on your patio? Generally, unit owners
own and are responsible for the interior of their condos, while costs for
outside maintenance including common areas and sewer lines are the
association’s responsibility.

Who lives there?
Are the majority of residents owners or renters? Owners generally take more
interest in proper maintenance and are more willing than renters to serve on
the association board and enforce complex rules and regulations–including the
regular collection of homeowner dues.

How effective is
the homeowner’s association? Do they have legal counsel,
reasonable funds and a capable, caring volunteer board? One way to judge is to
check with residents about restrictions, oversight and timeliness of repairs
and upgrades. Another is to take a hard look at the grounds and be wary of
signs of neglect.

What about special
assessments? The association should have the power to special
assess for needed, one-time large expenditures. Otherwise, things that need to
be done may never get done at all, leaving the complex vulnerable to disrepair
and lowered property values.


Don’t miss this great opportunity to become a homeowner or to downsize by
buying a condo (remember, the move-up tax credit does not require you to move
to a larger or more expensive home).

Notes from Scott’s Desk

Leave a comment

There are houses selling…2 contracts per listing of late – and
in different price points, $250,000 and $850,000.  The contracts came in close to list price even
though they were in competition.

Some agents like Equator, the new Bank of America short sale
portal – because of their quick responses and live chat, but some still have
repeated problems with acceptance of forms in particular formats.  Once in the final stage of approval, it takes
about 6 weeks to close, and they take precautions to stave off foreclosure.

Ask for 90 day short sale contingency approval – don’t pull
contract in final stages of negotiation, swap out contracts with same terms to
keep the ball rolling – you don’t want to have to go back to the beginning.

Short sale listings are finding agents – agents aren’t
pursuing them as much, they are just coming in.

Go back to database – reach out and talk to your people to
grow your business.  We are in a
relationship business – build those relationships deeper and your success will
follow. 

What will happen at the end of April when the tax credit is
gone?  No, what will happen at the end of
March when the Fed stops buying MBS?  The
market will slow…buyers will be back on the fence…financing is tough enough –
hopefully the restrictions on obtaining financing won’t get any worse…rates
will increase – buyers will drop out of market – will prices drop?  Message to send out: look at the positive
side of things…rates are great, inventory is available, prices remain low, we
know what loan programs are available…we need to list out true picture of the
market, it’s our job.

How do properties not listed as short sales end up in hands
of investors prior to courthouse steps?  Are
these investors negotiating directly with the seller or going to the trustee at
the steps or are they going directly to the bank?  This is a question our group would like to
know the answer too.

Appraisers are asking to have snow removed from the roofs of
properties…appraisals are coming in low…fewer sales make appraisals a problem
this time of year…appraisers aren’t going into the house in some cases…on FHA
loans, the lender has the option of using the first appraisal or ordering a
second one, if you are caught in a low appraisal situation with FHA loans on
your listings, switch lenders…

Housing starts rise in January 2.8% – RISMEDIA, February 22,
2010—Nationwide housing production hit its strongest pace in the last six
months this January, posting a 2.8% gain to a seasonally adjusted annual rate
of 591,000 units, according to figures recently released by the U.S. Commerce
Department.

According to the latest indexes (Zillow and the Feds “flow
of funds report) negative owner equity has dropped as prices have begun to
increase and between the 1st and 3rd quarters last year,
home equity rose by $1 trillion as a combination of increased home values and
principal pay down.  Although this news
was good for a lot of the country, the sand states (FL, AZ, NM & CA)
continue to be viewed as a high risk factor.

Josh Burruss of Potomac Mortgage Group mentioned the
upcoming FHA financing changes and dates to keep in mind to create buyer
urgency.

The following are some images from our monthly Real Estate Exchange in Gainesville. 

IMG_7864

IMG_7866 

IMG_7869     IMG_7872 

IMG_7877     IMG_7878

 

Do you have an On Purpose Attitude?

Leave a comment

One of the keys to success is to act…On Purpose.  Each of your activities must be intentional and must begin with the end in mind.  If there is no purpose to the activity, don’t do it!  Let’s analyze the On Purpose Attitude.

 

O – Outgoing, you must have a personality that is outgoing to achieve success.  You need to get out from behind your desk, out of your home office and get in front of people.  Be engaging and attract people through your personality and success will follow.

 

N – Nurturing, you must nuture the relationships you build through your outgoing personality.  Learn about those you meet, learn about their business, and help them grow their business and you will naturally have success follow you!

 

P – Proactive, be proactive in your daily activities.  Success won’t come to you – you have to go out and get it!  Areas of proactivity must include prospecting, learning, research and networking.

 

U – Urgency, develop a sense of urgency in your activities, as well.  John Wooden said, “be quick, but don’t be in a hurry”.  Have a sense of urgency to get things done.  Don’t procrastinate.  Develop to do lists, prioritize, and move on to the next activity.

 

R – Results, be effective and get results that build one step at a time to a successful life and career.  Determine what your results need to be to get the success you want and set a plan to accomplish what you need.

 

P – Planning, this is a critical step.  You need to plan your day, week, month and year to give yourself a road map to your success.  Review your plan and make appropriate adjustments as necessary.

 

O – Organized, you must be organized in all areas of your life to get the results you need.  Have an organized filing system, organized office, organized files, organized presentations, and you will reflect the professionalism that gets you to your desired level of success.

 

S – Systems, you must incorporate systems you need to follow to get the results you need.  Critical pieces of this puzzle include lead generation systems, follow up systems, processing systems, and other systems you need for your success.

 

E – Excellence, you must strive for excellence in all that you do.  The areas to consider are excellent customer satisfaction, excellent presentations, excellent communication, excellent work ethic, and excellent daily activities.

 

If you act On Purpose in all that you do, you will achieve success!  Get it?  Got it?  Good!

 

Now, go sell something!

The Market Is What the Market Is…

Leave a comment

Platinum
Group and Haymarket Real Estate Exchange in January

AMSHI
is charging $5,000 to buyers and $5,000 to sellers to negotiate short sales…short
sales are getting tougher – for example, Bank of America is taking forever and
in many cases sends you back to square one. 
Banks are setting unrealistic expectations for closing dates with
approvals on their short sales.  Banks
aren’t up to speed on lending rules and regulations when giving the approvals.  Employees at these banks are not educated –
fresh from college, calls are often outsourced, and they have not been trained
properly.  Bank of America is now using
Equator; therefore, there is no one person to speak with which makes the
process even more frustrating.

Foreclosures
are coming – it’s ground hog day – we keep hearing the same thing over and
over.  One agent has 6 in the pipe line;
another has 5 in the pipeline and 6 under contract and is getting about 1 every
2 to 3 weeks.  We are below the national
average as far as default rates and our inventory level is 33% distressed. 

We
discussed “shadow” inventory that we just don’t see, but the media continues to
talk about.  If banks are going release
foreclosures into the market, it will be a slow and steady release and not a
“dump” on the market scenario. 
Foreclosure filings were down 26% in Prince William County in 2009 –
stay tuned!

It’s
tough to find properties under $400,000.

We
are waiting on the FHA mortgagee letter to be released to hear about new
guidelines – increase in down payment with credit scores under 580, increase in
upfront mortgage insurance, reduced seller concessions, and the waving of the
seasoning requirements for flips – we shall see…

VA’s
max loan is now $758,000.

Inventory
levels are slowly increasing which give the appearance of things being slow,
but it really isn’t – especially in the lower price ranges.

Need
to build urgency in buyers – prices are affordable, interest rates remain
attractive, home buyer tax credit is still in place, and loan programs are in
place today that may not be available in the future.

A Real Threat?

2 Comments

The
question surrounding our market lately is shadow inventory and how will it
affect us.  Well in my opinion, it is a
very good question as it is a question I have been asking myself and our agents
for several months.  Over the past 18-24 months we have heard about
foreclosure being released into the market – it hasn’t happened as of
yet.  The latest indication from asset managers is that properties will be
released in the 2nd quarter of this year.  We shall see if it
occurs.

 

The
question I ask is for agents to look around their neighborhood for vacant
properties not currently listed for sale, and ask their neighbors and friends
if they see many unlisted vacant houses.  The answer I typically get is
no, there aren’t that many. 

 

We
ask how many of your friends or neighbors outside of real estate are unemployed
locally.  The answer, not many.  We ask our agents if requests for
BPO’s (broker price opinions) are on the rise, steady or going down – here you
get a very mixed bag but mostly we hear they are going up, but only
slightly. 

 

We
run MRIS numbers Friday mornings in Fairfax, Loudoun, Prince William,
Arlington, Fauquier, Alexandria City, Fairfax City, Falls Church City, Manassas
City and Manassas Park for resales only in the categories of actives, under
contract, settled the last 30 days, vacant, and rentals to help us determine
trends in the market.  As of this past Friday, there were 4,727 active
resales in these areas.  335 were listed as foreclosures, 931 were listed
as short sales and 41 were listed as undisclosed (which are more than likely
short sales) which represents 28% of the inventory.  These numbers are
below 2008 numbers when we experienced our foreclosure boom.  And, our
inventory numbers are down 54% from the same week last year and are down 70%
from 2 years ago.  Plus, we only have a 2.5 month supply of homes.

 

So
where will the shadow inventory come from is the question and I believe it is
foreclosures and unapproved short sales.  What dictates
foreclosures?  Unemployment is one of the biggest factors.  The job
loss to foreclosure ratio is 6 – 1.  I understand that unemployment in
Northern Virginia is around 4.2% which is very low.  Job relocation and
subsequent inability to sell.  Well national unemployment is over 10% and
companies are relocating here so we are seeing fewer relocations out of the
area.  Divorce is another factor – it is my understanding that they are
down because people are under water with values and can’t afford to finalize
divorces.  So it seems unlikely we will see a huge influx on inventory
from these areas but we do have two real threats in our future – Prime loan ARM
readjustments and the eventual unapproved short sales inventory being reentered
into inventory.  The only issue is we are unsure of the true number we
have here in our area and if it will have any significant impact.

 

We
will have “shadow” inventory but I don’t believe it to be a real threat to our
market as our inventory level is low and we should be able to absorb it with
the pent up demand we are experiencing with the home buyer tax credit expansion
and extension coupled with low rates and reduced valuations of properties.  Get it? 
Got it?  Good!

 

Now,
go sell something!

Time Flies…

Leave a comment

 

Time flies – it’s an amazing phenomenon.  As many of you are contemplating your plan
for the New Year and what success is going to look like for you in it – think
about this – 5% of the year is already gone. 
Have you attained 5% of your yearly goals?  Are you working a specific plan or are you
muddling through each day “hoping” things will come together for you this
year?  Each day that goes by without
direction is a lost day in your life and before you know it, another valuable
year is gone. 

It is time to begin to live a purpose driven life with you
as the pilot – not a passenger.  Start to
map out your daily activities, find an accountability partner to hold you and
them to a higher standard, write down the objectives you want to attain, and
set your course for success.  One of the
best ways to attain a goal that is a SMARTY (Specific, Measurable, Attainable,
Realistic, Timeframe oriented and Yours) is to break it down into smaller,
measurable and manageable pieces to help you achieve them.  In order to help you better achieve your
goals is to write them out on paper. 
This critical step cannot be overlooked!

As we all know, time is precious and once it is gone, you
can’t get it back.  So get busy getting
busy and map out your pathway to success. 
We are here to help.  Get it?  Got it? 
Good!

Now, go sell something!

D-I-S-C-I-P-L-I-N-E

Leave a comment

Recently we discussed change and in my opinion, one of the key ingredients to true change is discipline. Discipline is defined as conscious control over lifestyle – mental self-control used in directing or changing behavior, learning something, or training for something.  Here is a breakdown of discipline to help you continue down the path or perhaps blaze a new trail to incorporate this quality characteristic into your daily habits.

Desire – you must want what you have written or listed as your goal or objective.

Initiate – you must initate the proper behaviors or changes into your life.

Sacrifices – you must realize there are sacrifices necessary to implement in your life to achieve success.

Commit – you must commit to the changes you desire and stick with them to get the results you want.

Intentional – your actions must be intentional towards your new behavior and away from the old in order for true change to occur in your life.

Passion – you must have passion to achieve what lifestyle change you are implementing into your routine.

Learn – you must learn to accept the challenges you will face and fight through the “pain” of old habits.

Inspire – reward your new behavior to inspire yourself to stay on course and in the process, perhaps you will inspire others to do the same!

Numbers – it starts with small incremental changes, one by one that will add up to huge results.  As the saying goes, you eat an elephant one bite at a time.

Excellence – is what you will achieve if you stick with your plan of action through discipline.

In order to effectively implement change in your life, you must embrace discipline.  By writing your goals down, it will help you have focus, desire and the will to achieve, which will result in discipline becoming easier for you.  Remember, it all starts within you.  Get it?  Got it?  Good!

What kind of change are you looking for?

Leave a comment

As the New Year is upon us, it is the time many agents think about changing companies.  Before you think about making a move consider the following thoughts you are about to read.  A change of scenery is just that – a change in scenery.  Rarely does a change for change sake work.  Either does a change to “see what happens”.  The only time a change works is when change happens from within.  To truly change, you must change your habits, change your work ethic, change your desires, change how or who you are – not where you are.  My grandmother used to say, “A leopard doesn’t change its spots”.

True change is a choice to change behavioral patterns and thought processes not a change in location.  Rarely will success occur from merely changing where you are.  A change for the best occurs when you take advantage of what is available to you and by instilling discipline into your life.  Your attitude is typically one of the best places to start.  Analyze where you are today and why.  Do you have the discipline to set and achieve goals, develop a plan of action, setting a schedule, working that schedule, and growing you through education, accountability and coaching?  Find a mentor to develop yourself into what you want to become – don’t just change companies…this is superficial and in the end will rarely help you and you will continue your search for the next company that offers lower fees, more leads or something else that won’t yield true results.  The great Bob Marley sang – you’re running and you’re running and you’re running away but you can’t run away from yourself.  Truer words have never been sung in regards to change.  You can’t change others, changing companies doesn’t work – only changing you works. 

Now at times, a change is required if you aren’t provided opportunities – training, coaching, the right atmosphere, leadership or potential to grow yourself and your business but when you are and you don’t take advantage of these opportunities – you only have yourself to blame and your success will be no greater at the new location.  Lower fees won’t make a difference – the promise of leads won’t make you better – a salary won’t make you improve – only you can make you better.

It’s time to change you – not your location or company.  Get it?  Got it?  Good!

Now, go sell something.