Slow & Steady wins the race!

September 11, 2009 · Nicole Machado · 9 Comments

What do you do when you have close personal friends who are in the market to buy, but can’t hire you as their agent out of obligation to a family member? I recently had a situation occur where my friends decided it was time to jump off the rental train and become home owners. I thought it was a great idea and a wonderful way to secure their financial future. The wife would call me and ask me questions and of course I would answer any and all that came my way. I even set them up with a loan agent to get them pre-approved and started sending them automated email alerts for new active properties. Read more

Lower Rates Aren’t In The Bag

June 24, 2009 · Dean Rizzi · 4 Comments

Last week’s drop in mortgage rates was a welcome relief, and you would think that more relief should be forthcoming. After all, inflation appears to be a dead issue, given recent data on producer and consumer prices. Inflation and interest rates are highly correlated: When one falls, the other usually falls in tandem.

But there is more to the story than inflation. All interest rates are determined relative to risk-free market interest rates, with short-term Treasury bills serving as a proxy. But most interest rates are not risk-free. Mortgages rates are certainly not risk-free, which is why they are higher than Treasury bill rates. What’s more, mortgage rates are heavily influenced by rates on mortgage-backed securities (MBS). MBS rates, in turn, are heavily influenced by yields on Treasury bills, notes, and bonds.

And there is the rub. Treasury securities prices tumbled last week after Read more

Real Estate Jargon…What Do All of These Terms Mean?

April 6, 2009 · Kathy Wall · 11 Comments

We Realtors often bandy about tons of real estate jargon. We talk to our clients and friends about short sales, REO’s, contingency periods, etc. I have come to realize, however, that just because we know what all of this stuff means, not everyone does, so I thought it would be helpful to describe some of the terms we use. Hopefully, this will give you some idea of what we’re talking about as we rattle on and on and your eyes are going bleary! Here goes:

Contingency Periods: We, generally, refer to these when doing our contracts. As an example, we tell you that you will have a 10 day period to “remove your property condition contingency” or 20 days to remove loan and appraisal contingencies. What this really boils down to, is that these are the time frames during which you will have the right to get your deposit back if you cancel the contract. Once you “remove these contingencies,” you are no longer entitled to get your deposit back, unless you can prove some sort of fraud. Read more

Loan, Gift or Partner to Help Children Buy A Home?

January 9, 2009 · Lee Ginsburg · 6 Comments

As parents we all love our children and only want to help them. In the Bay Area parents almost have to help with a down payment. Do you give your children a gift or a loan? Is it better to be a co-borrower with them? Maybe be partners. If you help one child, you have to help the others. California is a community property state and that creates other issues. It is difficult to bring it up but more than half the marriages wind up in divorce and gifting child money to purchase a home is possibly giving your child’s ex-spouse a very generous gift. Asking a child to sign a promissory note is not always comfortable. In many families Money is a “taboo” subject. I helped my son purchase a home with the idea he was to pay it back when he could. My wife and I always had a good relationship with my son so we did not see any need to have a signed document. Hope that does not come back to bite us. He got engaged a year later and married a short time later. Read more

10 Reasons to use a Mortgage Broker

August 18, 2008 · Dean Rizzi · Comment here

1. Simply put, Mortgage Brokers will save you TIME and MONEY!

2. Brokers are driven to find you the best rate, your bank’s goal is to provide another service to you.

3. You can tell brokers everything, and they’ll present your information to the lender in the most favorable light; once you tell your bank something that’s not in your favor, it’s too late to take it back Read more