Napa Solano Yolo real estate blog

  Don't miss this one! 207 Santa Cruz Dr Fairfield. Over 1300 sf home 3 beds, 2 baths, 2 car garage, easy commute to shopping, Travis Air Force base and greater bay area. Fenced yards and large covered patio.  -Barbara Adams, Realtor SFR SRES

Check with your preferred lender, rates are at an all time low according to the news this week.

Stake out your piece of America's real estate now.

Your home may no longer be a cash cow but you must live somewhere and so far, in most cases, your mortgage interest and property taxes are a tax deductible item. Call your tax professional and your financial advisor today.

August 26, 2010 Barbara Adams, Realtor SRES, SFR

As of January 6, 2010:  If you have a question about purchasing a condominium, be aware that your lender must ensure that the condo community is FHA approved or you will not be able to get a loan on a condo in that project. The condo project must meet certain criteria for liens, loans, number of units being used as rentals etc.

Per HUD Mortgagee Letter 2009-46A, “Spot Loan” approvals on condominiums will be eliminated, effective February 1, 2010.  Details here. The HUD database for FHA approved projects will no longer be the most accurate way to guarantee that a unit “is” or “is not” FHA approved.  

When considering purchasing Condos or Townhouses these projects must have already been approved by the FHA and HUD. It is the task of your lender to make sure that the address you are getting a loan approval on is qualified for your fha loan. There is no exception to this rule.

HUD page will only display approved condo or townhouse projects in that zip code or town, so it is suggested you first make a list of zip codes you would consider living in then search for projects. Search the HUD database for condos.

Before you contact the FHA approved project please keep in mind it is very important to already be pre-approved by your lender for your personal financial data and the property you intend to purchase.

"When real estate prices are high, people seem to want to buy...when it's truly the time to buy, prices and interest rates are low...people shy away.

Buy Low, Sell High...this is the mantra....and it is truly the way investors win in a market like today's."

Here is a list of lender contacts to initiate a home loan modification.

Once you have determined if you are eligible for a Home Affordable Refinance or Modification, the next step is to contact your mortgage servicer to discuss your situation. A wide array of servicers have agreed to participate in the Home Affordable Modification program and have already engaged borrowers and expanded capacity to begin the modification process for eligible homeowners. In addition, all servicers for loans owned by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are required to participate. Visit the Loan Look Up to determine if your loan is held by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. The following link shows a list of servicers who have formalized their commitment to the program through a signed contract. -Home Affordable Website

Under one of the many new HAFA guidelines that nearly all owner-occupied short sales are now following:

RASS- Request for Approval of Short Sale form will indicate that buyer cannot sell home for at least 90 days after purchase.

Investors can still buy the home but they will not be able to immediately or shortly thereafter "flip" the house and sell it to another buyer.

Now serving you with the SFR designation from NAR, the only designation for Realtors working with distressed properties sanctioned by the National Association of Realtors.

Work with a designated short sale foreclosure resource agent today. Just give me a call to get information on short sales foreclosures and much more!

Find out what it means when the listing says "Not a short sale, not an REO". Homes that are owned by owner occupants who have equity in their homes, not owned by a bank and no short sale approval contingency required from the bank, just a regular sale.

Actually on our company tour this week, half of the new listings had NO SALE CONDITIONS. Which means no waiting for an answer from a bank, an actual seller who lives in the home and wants to sell their home who can review your offer when it is written and give you a firm answer in writing within 3 days of receiving it from you.

Short sales will become more prevalent after April 5, 2010 when a new short sale approval program will be implemented by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans and 105+ other banks will also comply with the guidelines.

Essentially if a homeowner occupant has not been able to qualify for a loan modification thru HAMP, they will be eligible to apply for HAFA program, their bank will pre-approve short sale conditions, instruct the homeowner to hire an experienced Realtor to market their home in the traditional manner, find a buyer at full market value and they can give bank approval in just a few weeks instead of months and months of waiting and wondering. 

The government will even give the homeowner a $1500 stipend to help them move.

Call me for more details on this short sale program, find out if your bank is participating. ~Barbara Adams, Realtor SFR SRES copyright Napawebsol 2010 

Short Sale Listings now outnumber the REO listings-

March 2010- Barbara Adams

I can represent you in the listing or sale of a short sale listed home.

Many new standardized actions will be implemented in early April 2010 which should make this process less harrowing, more standardized in bank submission forms and timelines should be streamlined once most of the banks are on board with the new HAFA program guidelines or create their own requirements which should fit into the format that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will follow.

This means the following will be more or less agreed to and understood from day one on the short sales of the near future (and some of today's):

-If homeowners cannot qualify for a loan modification thru HAMP, they can agree with the bank to short sale their home.

- All parties will agree to look at "bank approval" as just another escrow contingency, not just the formerly long and agonizing first step between contract approval and inspection periods.

-Since homeowners are the owners of their homes, they will still be hiring their own Realtor to list and sell their home. Someone they or their friends or relatives know and trust who can guide them thru the sales process.

-Their bank will give them guidelines on the approximate current market value of their home so that from the beginning, the homeowner and their Realtor will know what the bank would agree to on the short payoff of the current mortgage. No more guessing, no more waiting for months on end.

-Agree with the bank and the buyer of their home that a couple of things will change with the short sale buying process.

1) Buyer's deposit will be submitted/collected from the beginning of the short sale to the title company, and held in escrow.

2) The short sale approval from the bank is to be looked at for what it really is...just another one of the many contingencies in the sale of the home, meaning the inspections, appraisals etc will commence once the fully executed offer has been submitted to the bank, not after the written bank approval. 

These two actions alone will alleviate many of the failed escrows that are occurring in the current short sale arena. It will eliminate the terribly confusing chaos that is currently happening when a seller finally wins bank approval on their short sale only to find out their "buyer" had made many offers on many homes (this is not ethical nor legal in most cases) and that the seller now has approval on a buyer that is long gone, the approval process must then be completed again (in most cases) on a new buyer and oftentimes the seller is too far into foreclosure process.

Another important change taking effect in early April with Fannie Mae Loans is that there will be a specific price range the bank will be looking for on that property, the bank will tell the homeowner and their Realtor in advance so that an answer can be achieved from the bank in a timely manner, the goal is to see written bank approvals in approximately 2 weeks if everything is done per the new guidelines.

Over 115 banks have already agreed to the new short sale procedures so we expect a few rough spots in the beginning, but once we get the ball rolling the short sale process should be greatly reduced.

Homeowners will be expected to submit their financial package at the start of this process and use standard forms to the bank. This will be mandatory to the listing of the home for sale thru this process. Contact me for a complete list of the required information to submit to the bank.

Remember, to qualify, a homeowner must have been denied a home loan modification thru HAMP first.

Most short sale homes are in much better condition than the bank owned foreclosures of the past, they are more usually upgraded than the bank owned homes, so everyone wins.   -Barbara Adams, Realtor, SRES

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Investors who buy former bank owned homes had a problem selling them to FHA buyers before Feb 1, 2010 due to FHA guidelines. Most private buyers are using FHA loans these days because the down payment is only 3.5%. Investors who are buying homes, fixing them up and then wanting to sell them had to wait up to 90 days to close escrow on the sale. These people actually help improve neighborhoods by updating the homes, especially kitchen cabinets, flooring, new paint in and out and sometimes new landscaping.

FHA guidelines also outline all the factors used to approve buyers for loans such as credit scores, short sale or foreclosure in their backgrounds etc.