http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/ontheblock/detail?entry_id=69044&tsp=1

With the vaules I see and the interest rates… this could be one of the best times to buy a home in years…. whether you are trading up or not.

Dean Rizzi
www.deanrizzi.com

You may not see the lines out the door but look at the stack of files on the loan agents’ desks. We are in record low territory. Rates have never been this low in the 50 years of record keeping. How low? Below 5% fixed for the next 30 years. 3.75 fixed for the next 15 years. That’s how low. If you are buying you must understand these are not normal times. Take advantage. Jump in. What other industry will fix their price for the next 30 years. Ask the gas station on the corner, if you would commit to buying your gas there for the next 30 years, will they hold today’s price.

Homeowners, no matter when you re-financed last review the situation again with your loan agent. If you do not have one I can recommend some I work with.

A note to both homeowners and home buyers:      If you are comparing rates you must compare at the same time. Interest rates fluctuate throughout the day and you want to be sure you are comparing apples to apples. You want to know what the fees will be. Also I strongly suggest you work with a person you have worked with previously or you know someone who has. The reason being a lender can quote any rate in a conversation but it is another issue to honor when reality comes. Also I suggest going with someone that only does loans. The lending rules, programs and policies are changing daily. One must be in the market continuously to be on top of it all. Going in and speaking to your favorite bank teller is not recommended. Call me and I will give you some names.

In today’s market if you put down 20% or have 20% in equity you will get the best rates. Interest rates break at $417,000 and below, at $729,750, and then again over the $729,750 each bank has their own policy. You can obtain financing with only 3.5% down or in equity. Yes you have to pay a little premium but that is nothing as compared if interest rates increase. The average interest rate over the last 25 years is about 8 %. Right now it is like the day after Christmas sale. It is almost half price. It was not that long ago that we had 14-18% interest. Try it! You will like it!

When refinancing you want to consider how long you will live in the home, how much of your present payment is going towards principal and how much will go with your new payment. It used to be if you can lower your rate by 2% then it is worth the while to refinance. I don’t think there is any real number that says you should refinance. It is a personal choice based on your finances and your goals. I suggest multiplying your old payment by the remaining term and or how much longer you think you will be in your home. Compare that cost vs. the cost at your new rate. Then compare your remaining balance. Many home buyers are putting in cash to buy the loan down to get the lowest rates and to have 20% equity. Many are re-financing into 15 year loans. Keeping the payments about the same but paying off the home in half the time. Some are financing and taking money out to buy investment property. This is an opportunity not to pass up. Talk to your accountant, real estate agent, mortgage person, financial advisor and or fortune teller.

Homebuyers don’t realize how good it is today. Let me quickly review some numbers. If you qualified last year for a $400,000 loan when rates were 5.5%, today you can qualify for $450,000 and have the same payment. Today a $400,000 loan will cost about $2000 a month. Last year that same loan would have cost almost $300 more. Don’t wait any longer. We in the business are surprised how low rates are and how long they have been low. My crystal ball tells me rates will increase but it won’t commit to when. Buying a home is an exciting and nerve racking event. With a good team (real estate agent, lender, and inspectors) supporting you we can help alleviate a lot of the stress. Call me toll free at 877-Lee-Sells and I will refer you to the good lenders I work with.

To read more click on: http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-06-24/business/21925746_1_mortgage-rates-track-michael-fratantoni-average-rate

www.leesellsmore.com

This has been one of the most frustrating and stressful experiences of my life.    As mentioned, I started talking with the bank in late 2008.    Around July of 2009, they told me that I had qualified for a certain type of loan modification.   They gave me my new payment amount and I started paying that amount.   I paid them faithfully every month thereafter.     I was concerned, however, because I never received any formal paperwork and, because real estate is my job, I knew something had to be wrong.    I called them constantly and they kept telling me there was no problem, everything was “in process.”   

I believe it was in January this year that I returned home to find a letter from the bank in my mailbox.   The letter indicated that I was in default and that if I didn’t pay them $35,000 by a certain (very near) date, they would start foreclosure proceedings.    Needless to say, I freaked out.      

After my initial panic, I went back to making my constant calls to them, re-submitted all of my paperwork and kept waiting to come home and find a foreclosure notice on my door or to find my house on the list of defaults that we get every week.   It was a terrible time.    

Luckily, in my case, after an incredible amount of phone calls I finally got an actual loan modification (notarized paperwork and all), dropping my mortgage interest rate to 2% for the first year, 3% the following year, capping out at 5% in 5 years.  

What troubles me is that I am a professional and knew who to call and that I had to be tenacious, yet I was at the end of my rope.   I can’t imagine how difficult it must be for those who are not in this business and don’t have the skills or tenacity to keep fighting.    Heck, or those who have regular jobs where they can’t sit on hold for 30 minutes every day waiting to talk to someone who actually knows nothing, repeating your story over and over for months (in my case a year and a half!)   

All I can say is, that if anyone out there is trying to get a modification….don’t give up.    Call them regularly, take notes from each call that you make and, to use my favorite quote from Winston Churchill…”Never, never, never give up.”

Kathy Wall
(415) 608-4168

The Federal Reserve’s low-rate policy is hardly inspiring confidence. “Rates must be low because the economy is circling the drain,” so the man-on-the-street rationale goes. It’s the wrong message to send, because promoting risk aversion also means promoting inertia. Risk-averse markets are simply less willing to engage in riskier, but worthwhile, economic activity.

This risk-averse sentiment is readily reflected in the capital markets, where the relatively non-productive assets of gold and Treasury securities continue to be the investments of choice. That’s unfortunate, because we’d all be better off if there were more investment in the very productive (though riskier) assets of home purchases and renovation and mortgage lending.

 www.deanrizzi.com

That would be very good news, if not for the fact that 411,000 of the new hires were related to the census. Nevertheless, that still leaves a net positive for the private sector. The increase was enough to push the unemployment rate down to 9.7 percent (though some pundits argue the drop was really due to a lower participation rate).

You never want to read too much into a single month of data, but we remain encouraged: job growth and wages picked up from April to May, while the average workweek lengthened. And although moderate compared to past post-recessions, the recovery is looking more sustainable after consumer spending and business investment rose at a healthy pace in the first quarter.

Overall, we think this latest employment report provides another reason to act now in both the mortgage and housing markets.

www.deanrizzi.com

It’s still early to render a verdict, but so far so good. People recognize that the combination of low rates and lower home prices represent a great opportunity, while many shoppers who failed to find a home to qualify for the tax credit remain undeterred and, just as important, rational – understanding the go-go days of the early 2000s are over. And that’s a good thing. The market of that era was driven more by speculation and less by fundamentals. And though it was highly remunerative for many of us, we see how it turned out.

In housing, slow and steady wins the race, which is why we continue to advise our clients that today’s market offers good fundamentally sound deals that can be financed at good economically advantageous interest rates. Sounds like a win-win deal to us.

www.deanrizzi.com

“Q: I’m getting an FHA loan to finance my first home. I’m in contract right now. Our appraisal is done and the house appraised for the sale price but the loan process is not yet done, although I was preapproved. My agent says the lender has to review the appraisal.

I’m confused about the difference between the loan contingency and the appraisal contingency. My agent says I should remove the appraisal contingency, but I’m not sure about that.”

Check out Tara-Nicholle Nelsons answer:
http://www.inman.com/buyers-sellers/columnists/tara-nicholle-nelson/plan-a-contingencies-lessons-buyers

http://leesellsmore.com/