Utah Real Estate & Mortgage Blog

Auction Date: Saturday, March 26th, 2:00pm

If you are looking to buy a home at auction, then you may not want to miss this opportunity.

119 Residential Lots, 10 Homes, 8 Commercial Properties are going to auction this day to the highest bidders. This is a public auction so all are welcome to attend! Most have no starting bid and are being sold at absolute auction, regardless of price!

Bidders must bring a $2500 earnest money deposit to bid on a home. You must close on the home within 30 days and be pre-approved for the loan. Home inspections must be done prior to bidding and can be done March 19th and 20th only.

A sampling of the homes that will be auctioned off:

http://www.zoomutah.com/906244

http://www.zoomutah.com/1016900

http://www.zoomutah.com/977311

http://www.zoomutah.com/976248

If you are interested in learning more, give us a call at 801-792-5040.

Other restrictions and terms & conditions do apply.

I thought it would be interesting to see how many active listings in Utah are short sales, foreclosures or traditional listings.

Here are the numbers (residential only as of March 16th, 2011):

• Total Active Listings: 18,827
• Short Sale Listings: 4,044
• Foreclosures/HUD Homes: 604
• Traditional (Non-Distressed Properties): 14,783

I found it interesting that short sales & foreclosures only make up 25% of the market. It seems whenever I’m out showing houses to my clients, most of the homes we preview are short sales or foreclosures. Is this because distressed properties are a better deal, do they entice buyers simply because of the label, ”Short Sales”, “Bank Owned”, “Foreclosure”, etc?

There is no definitive answer to these questions, but I have some observations to share with you.

• Short sales that are listed “Subject to 3rd party approval”, are listed at a price that the listing agent has no idea if the bank will even entertain. More times than not, the bank will want more than the list price. So having these artificial list prices does entice buyers to look at these homes.
• Short sales & Foreclosures as a general statement are in rough shape. You can usually plan on new carpet, paint, flooring, fixtures, etc. Sometimes they are so beat up, you can’t even obtain an FHA loan on these homes (unless you do a rehab loan). Due to their condition, prices should be lower.
• The media always talks about how some guy in Detroit bought a home for $5,000 so everybody wants one of those. I get calls on occasions asking me where they can buy these homes. They don’t exist! If a house was listed at $5,000, do you really think it would not get multiple offers that would ultimately bring the price up to market value anyway?

Buyers want a good deal, and in this market they should get one. If you are looking to buy a distressed property, you need to be prepared and patient for things that may come up during the transaction that are otherwise not an issue with traditional listings. Short sales can take 30 days to over a year to close. You may need to budget repairs after you close since banks sell these homes as-is with no repairs allowed. You can run into title issues, second/third lien holders not cooperating (home equity lines), mortgage insurance companies that are due to pay out on the home not cooperating, sellers trashing the home and ripping out the copper lines, etc. The list goes on and on! Having a great Buyer’s and Listings agent on a short sale will help reduce these risks, but these things do happen.

You need to have an open mind because there are “distressed” sellers of all types out there. I’ve closed on many homes where the listing was not a short sale or foreclosure and the price was much better than it’s distressed property counterparts. Not to mention the condition of the home was move-in ready.

The bottom line is there are great deals all over. I’m closing on homes that are 30,40, and even 60% off what they were selling for just 4 years ago. Rates are still awesome but on the rise. 2011 is shaping up to be the best yet and I am really excited for my clients to get into a home for the amazing prices we have in 2011.

Call me today if you’re looking to take advantage of this market and find yourself a home.

Kris Bowen
Realtor
801-792-5040.

In a mortgage market that changes as quickly as this one, today’s fact is tomorrow’s fiction.  For buyers, misinformation can be the difference between qualifying for a home loan or not. Sellers and owners, knowledge is foreclosure-preventing, smart decision-making power! Without further ado, let’s correct some common mortgage misconceptions.

1.       Myth: Buyers with bad credit can’t qualify for home loans. Obviously, mortgage guidelines have tightened up, big time, since the housing bubble burst, and they seem likely to tighten even further over the long-term. But just this moment, they have relaxed a bit.  In the last couple of weeks, two of the nation’s largest lenders of FHA loans announced that they’ve dropped the minimum FICO score guideline from 620 (which allows for some credit imperfections) to 580, which is actually a fairly low score.

At a FICO score of 620, buyers can qualify for FHA loans at many lenders with only 3.5 percent down. With a score of 580, the lenders are looking for more like 5 to 10 percent down – they want to see you put more of your own skin in the game, and the higher down payment lowers the risk that you’ll default.  However, if your credit has taken a recessionary hit, like that of so many Americans, this might create a glimmer of hope that you’ll be able to take advantage of low prices and interest rates without needing years of credit repair.

2.     Myth: The Mortgage Interest Deduction isn’t long for this world. Homeowners saved over $85 billion in 2008 by deducting their mortgage interest on their income tax returns. A few months ago, the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform caused a massive wave of fear to ripple throughout the world of real estate consumers and professionals when they recommended Mortgage Interest Deduction (MID) reform, which would dramatically reduce the size of the deduction.

Fact is, the Commission made a sweeping set of deficit-busting recommendations to Congress, a few of which are likely to be adopted.  Fortunately for buyers and sellers, MID reform is not one of them.  Very powerful industry groups and economists have been working with Congress to plead the case that MID reform any time in the near future would only handicap the housing recovery.  Congress-folk aren’t interested in stopping the stabilization of the real estate market.  As such, the MID is nearly universally thought of as safe – even by those who disagree that it should be.

3.       Myth:  It’s just a matter of time before loan guidelines loosen up. The US Treasury Department recently recommended the elimination of mortgage industry giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. I won’t get into the eye-glazing details of it here, but the long and the short is that (a) this is highly likely to happen, and (b) it will make mortgage loans much harder and costlier to get, for both buyers and homeowners.   It’s possible that loans are as easy to get as they’re going to get.  So don’t expect that if you hold out, zero-down mortgages will come back into vogue anytime soon. Fortunately, Fannie and Freddie aren’t likely to disappear for another 5-7 years, so you have a little time to pull your down payment and credit together. If you want to get into the market, the time to get yourself ready is now!

4.       Myth: If you don’t have equity, you can’t refi. Much ado is being made about how stuck so many people are in their bad loans, because they don’t have the equity to refinance their way out of them.  If you’re severely upside down (meaning you own much, much more than your home is worth), stuck may be the situation. But there are actually a couple of ways homeowners can refi their underwater home loans.  If your loan is held by Fannie or Freddie (which you can find out, here), they will actually refinance it up to 125% of its current value, assuming you otherwise qualify for the loan.  That means, if your home is worth $100,000, you could refinance a loan up to $125,000, despite the fact that your home can’t secure the full amount of the loan.

If your loan is not owned by Fannie or Freddie, you might be a candidate for the FHA “Short Refi” program. While most mortgage workout plans are only available to people who are behind on their loans, the Short Refi program is only available to homeowners who are current on their mortgages and need to refinance up to 115 percent of their homes’ value.  So, if you owe $250,000 on your home, you can refinance via an FHA Short Refi even if your home’s value is as low as $217,000. If you think you’re a good candidate for a short refi, contact your mortgage broker, stat – there are some in Congress who think that this program is so underutilized (only 245 applications have been submitted since it rolled out in September – no typo!) that its funding should be diverted to other needy programs.

5.       Myth: If you’ve lost your job and can’t make your mortgage payment, you might as well mail your keys in.  Until recently, this was essentially true – virtually every loan modification and refinancing opportunity required that your economic hardship be over before you could qualify. And documenting income has always been high on the requirements checklist. But there are some new funds available in the states with the hardest hit housing and job markets, which have been designated specifically for out-of-work homeowners.

By: Tara-Nicholle Nelson