My New Blog

$342,000.00 3740 Santa Rosalia Unit 421 Los Angeles, CA 90008 Beds: 2 Rooms: 0 Full Baths: 2 Sq. Ft.: 1020 Garage: 2 Built: 2007   This is a new listing that I thought you might be interested in. Visit this listing online to see more photos of the property, Google? Earth satellite images, and much more.   If you have any questions about this property or require more information, please feel free to call. Uletas Greene Carter Mutual Realty Consultants 2138043369 www.uletas4realestate.com     Visit this listing here

$303,000.00 4275 Via Arbolada Unit 213 Los Angeles, CA 90042 Beds: 0 Rooms: 0 Full Baths: 0 Sq. Ft.: 0 Garage: 0 Built: 0   This is a new listing that I thought you might be interested in. Visit this listing online to see more photos of the property, Google Earth satellite images, and much more.   If you have any questions about this property or require more information, please feel free to call. Uletas Greene Carter Mutual Realty Consultants 2138043369 www.uletas4realestate.com     Visit this listing here

By allowing your home to be foreclosed, you are inflicting unnecessary irreparable damage to your credit and financial future.

• You will now have to disclose your foreclosure on all future loan applications
• You will have to wait a period of 5 years in order to be eligible for a home mortgage loan.
• Your foreclosure is now recorded on your credit report, making it difficult to quality for any loan.
• You will owe and are responsible for any back property taxes.
• You still owe and are responsible for any back HOA payments.
• Your family will either move voluntarily or face a possible Sheriff Eviction.

In lieu of allow your home to be foreclosed, the real answer is executing a short sale.  These are the benefits of executing a short sale:

Mortgage Relief Act HR 3648 states that owners are not responsible for any losses a bank experiences due to a short sale.

all back property taxes are paid in full at the close of your short sale, eliminating any financial responsibility.

New FHA loan guidelines allow homeowners to qualify for a new home mortgage after a successful short sale.  At the time of qualifying you will have to have no mortgage lates for the past 12 months.

You will not have to disclose your short sale on any loan applications.

There will be no public Sheriff Eviction.  You will be able to stay in your home until your short sale closes.

This way you can save up additional monies.

All or most back HOA payments will be paid at the time of your short sale.

IF YOU DON'T CALL ME I CAN'T HELP.  LET ME AND MY TEAM HELP YOU. CALL 626-388-1500 TODAY.

HARP 2.0 is Federal Government Program implemented for homeowners whose loans are owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac and have little or no equity.

Following is a list of participating lenders

• Bank of America 1-800-846-2222
• Wells Fargo 877-937-9357
• Chase 800-848-9136
• Citi/CitiMortgage 800-283-7918
• US Bank 866-932-0462

Contact your mortgage servicer to see if they are participating in HARP 2.0.   For faster service, call me for a local lender to refinance you now.

Has the market stabilized?  Get the latest market conditions at

http://uletas.housingtrendsenewsletter.com/

According to Jack Guttentag, professor of finance emeritus at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Interest rates have been very low for several years, and right now they are lower than ever, yet millions of mortgage borrowers who could profit from a refinance haven't.

Similarly, millions of borrowers who are having trouble making their mortgage payments but want to remain in their homes could have their mortgages modified to make the payment affordable but haven't.

The reasons in both cases probably include apathy, resignation and ignorance, but this article is about ignorance only. Many borrowers are even hazy about the difference between a refinance and a modification.

Refinance vs. modification

In a refinance, you take out a new mortgage, either from your current lender or from a different one, and use the proceeds to pay off your existing mortgage. In a modification, the terms of your current mortgage are changed by your existing servicer, usually for the purpose of reducing the payment.

Most often this involves an interest-rate reduction, but it may also include a term extension and, in some cases, the loan balance may be reduced.

A refinance is a market-based transaction entered into by a lender who wants the new loan. A modification is an administrative measure designed to prevent the costs of a foreclosure. In both cases, however, the borrower must document an ability to make the new payment.

Refinance profitably if you can

In general, borrowers should refinance if a profitable refinance option is available to them. A refinancing will not drop a borrower's credit score, while a modification will. Refinancing borrowers can deal with their existing lenders but are free to shop alternatives.

A modification is a lot more complicated, takes a lot more time, and borrowers are wholly dependent on their existing servicers, which means that they have no bargaining power.

Qualifying for a refinance vs. qualifying for a modification

Declining home values have severely restricted the ability of many borrowers to refinance by eroding the equity in their homes. (Equity is property value less the mortgage balances.) With an important exception noted below, borrowers who have negative equity cannot qualify.

Borrowers with equity of 3 percent to 20 percent can qualify if they purchase mortgage insurance, which in some but not all cases will eliminate the profit from the refinance.

Borrowers with equity of 20 percent or more are best positioned to refinance profitably. In contrast, insufficient or negative equity will not bar a modification.

A low credit score will also prevent a refinance, but not a modification. Because lenders have become extremely risk-averse in the post-crisis market, credit scores have increased in importance and are related to equity.

On a Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mortgage, for example, the minimum score is usually 620, but a 620 score may require equity of 15 percent. If the borrower's equity is the minimum of 3 percent, the required credit score is likely to be 660.

Borrowers who have suffered income declines to the point where the ratio of housing expense to income is viewed as excessively high will have their refinance applications rejected. However, an income decline of this magnitude will not necessarily prevent a loan modification.

On the contrary, an income decline that weakens the ability of the borrower to continue current payments but still enables the borrower to afford lower payments is the major problem loan modifications are designed to meet.

Borrowers can check on whether they qualify for a refinance using the new qualification calculator on my website.

The HARP exception

The earlier statement that borrowers with negative equity cannot refinance has a major exception: If their loan is owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, they are eligible for refinancing under the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP). This program was recently extended and liberalized.

The previous negative equity ceiling of 25 percent was eliminated for fixed-rate mortgages; fees were reduced; the requirement for a new appraisal was eliminated in some cases; and incentives were provided to the lenders servicing the loans to refinance them.

Qualifying for a modification

Determining whether a borrower is eligible for a modification is a complicated exercise on which the rules are anything but clear. The government-supported program, which differs from the strictly private programs, requires that the borrower's income be large enough to afford a reduced payment but it cannot exceed 3.23 times the current mortgage payment. Further, the borrower cannot have "sufficient liquid assets" to make the payments, whatever that means.

In addition, the owner of the loan must be better off with the modification than without it, which is determined by a complicated algorithm that is available to servicers but not to borrowers or to me. The servicer has the final say.

I'm in the Trenches with You.  Call me at 626-388-1500 with your Real Estate Questions.

California has four great programs that are currently helping distressed homeowners.  These programs offer money to people who are unemployed, need to move after a short sale, need to catch up on payments, and the most requested program "Principal Reduction".

1.  Unemployment Mortgage Assistance offers mortgage aid to unemployed borrowers for nine months instead of six.  Such homeowners can get up to $3,000 a month not to exceed $27,000.  This program was launched January 2011 and expires December 31, 2017.  For information on this program click here http://keepyourhomecalifornia.org/uma.htm

2.  Mortgage Reinstatement Program helps homeowners who have fallen behind in payments.  This one time payment can be up to $20,000 to cover past due mortgage payments and HOA dues.  This program was launched February 7, 2011 and expires December 31, 2011.  More information click here http://keepyourhomecalifornia.org/mrap.htm

3.  Transition Assistance Program is for people who need help relocating after a short sale or deed-in-lieu of foreclosure.  It provides up to $5,000 in assistance.  This program was launched February 2011 and will continue for three years or until funds run out.  For more information, click here:  http://keepyourhomecalifornia.org/tap.htm

4.  The Principal Reduction Program is designed for families with serious hardship and with a severe decline in property values!  Homeowners who qualify for this program could receive up to $50,000 and this program requires your servicer to match it, possibly giving you up to $100,000 in principal reduction.  This program was launched February, 2011 and expires December 31, 2017.  For information click here, http://keepyourhomecalifornia.org/prp.htm.

To see if your mortgage servicer participates in "Keep Your Home California" click here www.keepyourhomecalifornia.org

There's a program out there for almost every situation.  I'll keep finding them.  In the meantime, thanks for reading and if you know of anyone who is thinking of buying or selling real estate, please give me a call.  I'm here to help! 213-804-3369.

At issue are the limits for so-called conforming mortgage loans that can be brought or guaranteed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Housing Administration.  These mortgages have the indirect backing of the U.S. government, which lowers their interest rates and down payment requirements.  In 2008, at the height of the financial crisis, Congress temporarily raised the conforming loan limit from $417,000 to $729,750 in affluent areas to boost the unstable housing market.

On October 1, 2011, those higher limits are scheduled to drop back down in expensive markets nationwide -- ranging anywhere from $483,000 in counties like Monterey, CA, to $625,500 in cities like New York and Washington.  As a result, about 1.4 million homes will be pushed out of eligibility for lower-rate conforming loans, according to the National Association of Home Builders.  Homeowners looking to buy or refinance those properties will have to take out "jumbo mortgages," which require a much larger down payment -- generally 20% to 30%, compared with the typical 10% for conforming loans and will carry interest rates that are usually a half to three-quarters of a percentage point higher.

The bottom Line?  More downward pressure on prices in high-end markets.  The new loan limits will affect approximately 8% of the total U.S. housing market, according to industry estimates, which will have a noticeable impact across the Northeast and California, as well as parts of Florida and Illinois.  Of major importance is that if expensive homes stop selling, then prices for houses under them will feel the pressure too.

While many experts support the idea of weaning the jumbo mortgage market off government financing, they worry about making the move while the housing sector is still trying to clear an overflow of inventory.  Reducing the conforming loan limits will test whether private lenders are willing and able to step up to the plate, but doing so this year may be premature.  "The cost to the housing market and economy of a misjudgment would be high." Says Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics.

 Call me for all your Real Estate Needs. 

The best way to increase your odds of a successful sale is to price your home at fair market value.  But, as logical as this sounds, for many sellers it is still tempting to tack a few percentage points onto the price to "leave room to negotiate".  To avoid this temptation, let's take a look at the seven disadvantages of overpricing:

1.  Appraisal Problems:  Even if you do find a buyer willing to pay an inflated price, the fact is over 90% of buyers use some kind of financing to pay for their home purchase.  If your home won't appraise for the purchase price, the sale will likely fail.

2.  No Showings:  Today's sophisticated home buyers are well educated about the real estate market.  If your home is overpriced they won't bother looking at it.

3.  Branding Problems:  When a new listing hits the market, every agent quickly checks the property out to see if it's a good fit for their clients.  If your home is branded as "overpriced," it will take drastic measures to reignite buyer interest.

4.  Selling the Competition:  Overpricing helps your competition.  How?  You make their lower prices seem like bargains.  Nothing is worse than watching your neighbors put up a sold sign.

5.  Stagnation:  The longer your home sits on the market, the more likely it is to become stigmatized or stale.  Have you ever seen a property that seems to be perpetually for sale?  Do you ever wonder, "What's wrong with that house?"

6.  Tougher Negotiations:  Buyers who do view your home may negotiate harder because the home has been on the market for a longer period of time and because it is overpriced compared to the competition.

7.  Lost Opportunities:  You will lose a percentage of buyers who are outside of your price point.  These are buyers who are looking in the price range that the home will eventually sell for but don't see the home because the price is above their pre-set budget.

Most buyers look at 10-15 homes before making a decision.  Because of this, setting a competitive price relative to the competition is an essential component to a successful marketing strategy.

Call me for all your real estate needs:  Office, 626-388-1500.

 

 

In the past, if a buyer walked for whatever reason, Bank of America required us to resubmit the entire short sale packet:  bank statements, paystubs, updated hardship letter, new appraisal, and another 3 months of waiting for them to make a decision. 

Bank of America announced yesterday that they will no longer require us to do that; therefore, if a buyer backs out, we can immediately submit a new buyer and continue with the short sale, and the process should go faster.  The new buyer doesn't have to wait another 3 months and the seller doesn't have to re-live the process. 

Hopefully, other lenders will implement this same procedure. 

Thanks for reading this, call me for all your real estate needs!

626-388-1500