“A Zillow Mortgage Marketplace survey found that borrowers who obtained a home loan in the past five years typically spent five hours researching their options, unchanged from March 2008. Nearly one-third (31 percent) spent two hours or less. This is on par with the typical time spent researching a vacation or computer purchase, and half the time consumers typically allocate to research a car purchase. ”

This is an unbelievable stat to me, but I am sure it’s true. Your home loan is the most money you will most likely ever borrow. Your mortgage professional should show you at least 3 options (assuming you qualify for more than one option) and then review each with you. He/She should discuss the plus and minus of each option. If you are staying in the home for 3-5 years then a 30 year loan may not make sense. Points and fees are the most confusing for home borrowers. Take your time, put a battery in your calculator and don’t just say ok, ok, ok, I got it. Ask questions even better ASK THE TOUGH QUESTIONS. make them earn their commission.

Before you drive off with that mortgage you know nothing about, take your time to shop around for the not only the best interest rate, but the best professional who will take their time to make sure you are going to have a lemon.

I am not surprised  to see these kind of stats being posted. Recenty, I have noticed a shift in perception from home buyers when it comes to home values here in San Diego. I am hearing “prices are going to  go up, now is the time to get in before you lose out”. More and more you  get the feeling that our market is turning around. You have a better chance of playing for the Padres then getting an offer accepted in the 350k and under price range. Seems like multiple offers are the norm and starting to feel like 2006 again.

The upper end  seems to be still slightly sluggish but I assume as the stock market continues to recover, soon we will be seeing  those buyers  back in.

Recently, I was told from a mortgage banker that mortgage insurance companies are no longer using declining values on a national basis and will now lend 95% of the value of the home up to 417k. This shows you that we have made some serious headway from 2 years ago.

It is my opinion that once the tax credit disappears we won’t not see any significant chang. After all, it is the American dream to own your own home.

San Diego was the first city to have its “bubble” burst, now it only makes sense that we would be the first to show significant improvement.

It should be  interesting Q3-4 of 2010.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/apr/27/san-diego-county-leads-home-index/

“The $100 million allocated for California’s first-time    tax credits may be depleted in about 10 to 20 days or sooner, according to C.A.R.’s Economics team.  California’s Franchise Tax Board (FTB) plans to begin accepting applications on May 1, 2010 for tax credits up to $10,000 for first-time home buyers and for homes that have never been previously occupied.  However, the total tax credit allocation for all taxpayers is $100 million for first-time home buyers and $100 million for new homes, both on a first-come, first-served basis.”

So, if you are trying to utilize this in conjunction with the federal tax credit, HURRY UP AND WRITE AN OFFER!

Why are the Wall Street boys who made sure that there was a liquid market for these loans not on the chopping block? 

I say leave WAMU alone unless you are going fishing with a huge net for all the other banks who did exactly the same thing. At this point, lets all just move forward and just realize that greed was the culprit, not the banks.

Most like likely with the staggering statistic of one in ever 110 kids is diagnosed with Autism, it is highly probable that you have been touched in some way by this devastating impairment. Spread the word. Helping the autism community can be as easy as updating your Facebook or Twitter status! On April 1, the Autism Society is asking supporters to change their status on Facebook and/or Twitter to “Autism affects 1 in 110. Text “AUTISM” to 50555 to donate $10 to the Autism Society. Help spread the word: http://bit.ly/bUAVRf.” For the first time ever, supporters can now simply text “AUTISM” to 50555 to donate $10 to the Autism Society. 100% of your donations will go to support the Autism Society’s mission of improving the lives of all affected by autism.

Back Up A Copy In Your Secure File Cabinet

After you have filed your taxes either electronically or the traditional paper here is a novel idea: Back it up  in your secure homedataguard.com filing cabinet. You never know if or when you may be audited and to be able to retrieve all your information with a click of a mouse will save you tons of time and stress looking for the box that you shoved your return into. “Never lost, Always there”™  homedataguard.com™

The current problem with short selling is that lenders have been taking anywhere from 60 days ( a near miracle) all the way to 1 year. I personally am working still on a short sale which began the process in May 2009.  Why does the process take so long?  Millions of homeowners are trying to accomplish this and banks are overwhelmed.  So, the Treasury Dept. came up with HAFA-Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives Program.

In 2009, the Treasury Department introduced the HAFA program to provide a viable option for homeowners who are unable to keep their homes through the existing Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). The HAFA program takes effect on April 5, 2010—although some servicers may implement it sooner, if they meet certain requirement–and sunsets on December 31, 2012. http://www.realtor.org/government_affairs/short_sales_hafa

HAFA provides incentives in connection with a short sale or a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure (DIL) used to avoid foreclosure on a loan eligible for modification under the HAMP program. Servicers participating in HAMP are also required to comply with HAFA. A list of servicers participating in HAMP (including HAFA) is available at: www.makinghomeaffordable.com/contact_servicer.html.

Here are the basic provisions:

• Uses borrower financial and hardship information already collected in connection with consideration of a loan modification.
• Allows borrowers to receive pre-approved short sales terms before listing the property (including the minimum acceptable net proceeds).
• Requires borrowers to be fully released from future liability for the first mortgage debt (no cash contribution, promissory note, or deficiency judgment is allowed).
• Uses standard processes, documents, and timeframes/deadlines.
• Provides the following financial incentives:
  • $3,000 for borrower relocation assistance;
  • $1,500 for servicers to cover administrative and processing costs;
  • Up to $2,000 for investors who allow a total of up to $6,000 in short sale proceeds to be distributed to subordinate lien holders, on a one-for-three matching balance.

In my opinion, HAFA- is a great effort to try and move this stalled process along.

I shared with him that my wife and I moved a few years ago and decided that we were not going to move file cabinets any longer. We purchased a Fujitsu ScanSnap scanner (which by the way is the smallest and fastest scanner on the market) and with in no time we had everything digitized and stored in the cloud on  HomeDataGuard.com. This not only gave us a significant savings on our move but we now have everything at our fingertips from anywhere in the world we travel to.