Daily Archives: March 16, 2012

Buying A Foreclosure | How To Buy A Foreclosed House? | HouseLogic for Bedford NY Real Estate

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5 Tips for Buying a Foreclosure

Get prequalified for a loan and set aside funds, and you’ll be ready to purchase a foreclosed home.

Couple doing paperwork with their REALTOR on a foreclosureWhen selling a foreclosed home, set a price well under market value so the home will sell quickly. Image: Image Source/Getty Images

When lenders take over a home through foreclosure, they want to sell it as quickly as possible. Since lenders aren’t in the real estate business, they turn to real estate brokers for help marketing their properties. Buying a foreclosed home through the multiple listing service can be a bargain, but it can also be a problem-filled process. Here are five tips to help you buy smart.

1. Choose a foreclosure sale expert. Lenders rarely sell their own foreclosures directly to consumers. They list them with real estate brokers. You can work with a real estate agent who sells foreclosed homes for lenders, or have a buyer’s agent find foreclosure properties for you. To locate a foreclosure sales specialist, call local brokers and ask if they are the listing agent for any banks.

Either way, ask the real estate professional which lenders’ homes they’ve sold, how many buyers they’ve represented in a foreclosed property purchase, how many of those sales they closed last year, and who they legally represent.

If the agent represents the lender, don’t reveal anything to her that you don’t want the lender to know, like whether you’re willing to spend more than you offer for a house.

2. Be ready for complications. In some states, the former owner of a foreclosed home can challenge the foreclosure in court, even after you’ve closed the sale. Ask your agent to recommend a real estate attorney who has negotiated with lenders selling foreclosed homes and has defended legal challenges to foreclosures.

Have your attorney explain your state’s foreclosure process and your risks in purchasing a foreclosed home. Set aside as much as $5,000 to cover potential legal fees.

3. Work with your agent to set a price. Ask your real estate agent to show you closed sales of comparable homes, which you can use to set your price. Start with an amount well under market value because the lender may be in a hurry to get rid of the home.

4. Get your financing in order. Many mortgage market players, such as Fannie Mae, require buyers to submit financing preapproval letters with a purchase offer. They’ll also reject all contingencies. Since most foreclosed homes are vacant, closings can be quick. Make sure you have the cash you’ll need to close your purchase.

5. Expect an as-is sale. Most homeowners stopped maintaining their home long before they could no longer make mortgage payments. Be sure to have enough money left after the sale to make at least minor, and sometimes substantive, repairs.

Although lenders may do minor cosmetic repairs to make foreclosed homes more marketable, they won’t give you credits for repair costs (or make additional repairs) because they’ve already factored the property’s condition into their asking price.

Lenders will also require that you purchase the home “as is,” which means in its current condition. Protect yourself by ordering a home inspection to uncover the true condition of the property, getting a pest inspection, and purchasing a home warranty.

Be sure you also do all the environmental testing that’s common to your region to find hazards such as radon, mold, lead-based paint, or underground storage tanks.

via buyandsell.houselogic.com

Pound Ridge NY Real Estate by robert paul | 43 Million More Housing Units to Sell and Rent

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43 Million More Housing Units to Sell and Rent


Between now and 2050, the U.S. is expected to grow to about 403 million people. It’s about 310 million today. That’s almost 100 million more people and they have to live somewhere, and looking at today’s total inventory of homes, we’ll need 43 million more units.

These are sales and rental lease-ups that are forecast to happen regardless of the ups and downs of the U.S. economy, and that helps to put in perspective what your business opportunities are in the years ahead.

The forecast is part of a report, called “Demographic Challenges and Opportunities for U.S. Housing Markets,” that just came out from a group called the Bipartisan Policy Center, which was started in 2007 by four former U.S. Senate leaders from both parties who are commissioning substantive research to find objective policy solutions to pressing issues.

NAR researcher Selma Hepp was part of the research team that prepared the study, She joined researchers from the University of Southern California and the Urban Institute.

Among their important findings is how the composition of the sales market is changing with the aging of the baby boomers and the arrival of the echo boomers. The baby boomers over the next two decades will be downsizing in a big way, in many cases getting out of the housing market altogether.

The result is expected to be the addition of some 11 million for-sale homes in markets from aging boomers between 2010 and 2020 and another 15 million between 2020 and 2030.

Who will buy all those units? The echo boomers, who are expected absorb 75-80 percent of them.

Lost ground. (Click to enlarge.)

Echo boomers are the children of baby boomers. They were born between 1981 and 1995, and they’re far more diverse than previous generations. That means disparities in home ownership rates between white households, African Americans, and Hispanics could close, assuming poorly thought-out mortgage financing rules don’t get in the way.

Right now, times are not good for minorities from a home ownership perspective. They were hit disproportionately hard by the housing crisis (see the nearby graph), and as the report shows, their home ownership rates have gone down the most in the last several years, widening the ownership gap with white households. So, until markets turn around, the country is losing, not gaining, ground in that respect.

The bottom line is, what’s decided in Congress and in the administration over the next several years to change the mortgage finance market will be crucial to the options available to echo boomers and others in deciding whether to rent or buy, and therefore whether wealth accumulation through owning will be in the cards for them.

As the researchers conclude in their report, “Whether for newly forming households or long-established ones . . . housing policies that emerge by the end of this decade have the potential to affect significantly the wealth portfolios of tens of millions of American families.”

via speakingofrealestate.blogs.realtor.org

From Million-Dollar Listings to Solving Murder Mysteries | Bedford Corners Homes by robert paul

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From Million-Dollar Listings to Solving Murder Mysteries


Vicki Doudera started gathering fodder for her mystery novels from day-one of her first real estate class back in 2003. Real estate intrigued and inspired her. She remembers sitting in the classroom, listening as the instructor discussed all the things that could go wrong in a transaction, while jotting down ideas in the margins of her paper. “Bludgeoned Buyers! Slaughtered Sellers!” And who would solve these crimes? Why, a savvy real estate agent, of course!

But before she put her pen-to-paper to tell the tales of suspense, murder, and real estate that danced in her head, Doudera got to work becoming a savvy real estate agent herself. A resident of mid-coast Maine since 1986 and a former inn owner, Doudera directed her skills and knowledge of the area to grow a successful business with Camden Real Estate as a broker and top-producer. She also wrote a book called Moving to Maine: The Essential Guide to Get You There and What You Need to Know to Stay (Down East Books, 2007).

In 2010 came her first novel, A House to Die For (Midnight Ink, 2010), which launched Doudera’s Darby Farr mystery series. Darby, the main character, is a vivacious real estate agent with a tragic past she is trying to leave behind in Maine. But she goes back to close a multimillion-dollar sale of a waterfront estate and ends up in the throes of a who-done-it murder after a man is found dead on the property.

Doudera’s second book in the series, Killer Listing (Midnight Ink, 2011), was released last April, which has Darby investigating a mysterious murder once again – this time a Florida broker who was in the fast-lane of multimillion-dollar listings, big-time commissions, and real estate deals (and love affairs) gone bad.

Doudera spoke with the Weekly Book Scan about Killer Listing and the Darby Farr series – including a sneak peek of Deadly Offer coming out this April.

What attracted you to the mystery genre?

I’m a big Nancy Drew fan, Clue is my favorite board game, and it really has been a lifelong dream to write mysteries. But it wasn’t until I went into real estate that I decided it would be a good backdrop for a mystery series. As a REALTOR®, you see so many properties and interesting houses – and you’re continuously meeting people from all over. There’s a lot of drama in real estate as people are selling their homes or making a purchase of a lifetime – it’s personal and there’s a lot of money involved, which is a good mixture for a mystery.

What else makes a good mystery to you?

I like a mystery that’s fast-paced and keeps you turning the pages. I don’t want to guess who done it at the end; I want to figure it out right along with the sleuth. I like to play fare with the audience, but I think a lot of great twists and turns will provide the element of surprise and make you keep reading.

Who is the audience you envision reading the Darby Farr series?

I think anyone who likes a good mystery will enjoy it, whether they’re in real estate or not. But Darby is dealing with a lot of the same things that we as agents deal with, so my fellow REALTORS® will see that and be able to relate.

Is Darby Farr autobiographical?

She is in that Darby and I are trying to do the right thing. It’s importing to me to keep Darby very ethical because I think the majority of real estate agents are very ethical for their clients and try to go above and beyond. She’s also from Maine, where I’ve lived for 25 years.

I love Darby. I love her spunk and I love that she’s an outsider. She’s an Asian American raised on an island in Maine and she sticks out like a sore thumb. I have a niece in Chicago who is half Japanese. She’s so beautiful and exotic looking, no one can pinpoint her ethnicity – I put some of those characteristics into Darby. She also has the gift of extraordinary senses, which I would love to have.

Which characters are your favorites to write about?

I like writing in the third person and writing from multiple viewpoints. Tina Ames in the first book comes back in the fourth book and her character is developing many more dimensions. It is true that characters evolve and new facets emerge as you write. I can now see what writers mean when they say their characters are taking over. I also like Helen Near in Killer Listings, the golfer who’s drinking mojitos all the time.

What are your plans for the series?

The third book is coming out, and four and five are under contract – I’m publishing one every year in April. I enjoy doing it and I think that comes across in the writing. Darcy has a lot to figure out from her past and the tragic death of her parents. There is also the World War II mystery involving her grandfather that comes out in Killer Listings. And Darby has her relationship with Miles. I’d like to see Darby grow and see where the series takes her.

How has your career influenced your writing?

I’m so thankful for this career in real estate and for the flexibility it allows me to write these books. Not only does real estate inspire me, it also gives me the opportunity to get out there, meet people, and sell homes, which I love.

Can you give us a sneak peek into the third book, Deadly Offer?

Darby travels with her assistant Enrique Tomaso Gomez (ET) who we met in the first book, to California’s wine country where his sister is found dead in her hot tub. She was selling her boutique vineyard and there were three very rich, very eager buyers. Darby quickly realizes that this wasn’t an accident.

via theweeklybookscan.blogs.realtor.org

Chappaqua Real Estate by robert paul | Reminder: 3.8% Tax is Not Tax on Real Estate

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Reminder: 3.8% Tax is Not Tax on Real Estate

On February 15, 2012, in Articles, Residential Property, by Dave

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Tax time is nearing and once more rumors are circulating on the Internet and by e-mail that the health care reform law enacted two years ago includes a 3.8 percent transfer tax on real estate starting in 2013. That rumor is not true and NAR has material available to you to explain how that 3.8 percent tax works. It’s a tax on a very narrow band of investment income for high-wealth households (those who earn $250,000 in a joint return or $200,000 as an individual) that could come into play on the sale of a house if the sales gain is more than $500,000 for a married couple or $250,000 for an individual.

Even in the unlikely event the sales gain is more than that amount, the tax would only apply based on other considerations having to with the household’s income and tax situation. The bottom line is, the tax, which was imposed to help shore up Medicare, will only hit some portion of investment income.

Video and explanatory article.

Free downloadable brochure on how the tax works. FAQ.

via infocentral.blogs.realtor.org

January Pending Home Sales Rise, Market on Uptrend | Armonk NY Homes by robert paul

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January Pending Home Sales Rise, Market on Uptrend

Washington, DC, February 27, 2012

Pending home sales are on an upward trend, which has been uneven but meaningful since reaching a cyclical low last April, and are well above a year ago, according to the National Association of Realtors®.

The Pending Home Sales Index,* a forward-looking indicator based on contract signings, rose 2.0 percent to 97.0 in January from a downwardly revised 95.1 in December and is 8.0 percent higher than January 2011 when it was 89.8. The data reflects contracts but not closings.

The January index is the highest since April 2010 when it reached 111.3 as buyers were rushing to take advantage of the home buyer tax credit.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said this is a hopeful indicator going into the spring home-buying season. “Given more favorable housing market conditions, the trend in contract activity implies we are on track for a more meaningful sales gain this year. With a sustained downtrend in unsold inventory, this would bring about a broad price stabilization or even modest national price growth, of course with local variations.”

The PHSI in the Northeast rose 7.6 percent to 78.2 in January and is 9.8 percent above a year ago. In the Midwest the index declined 3.8 percent to 88.1 but is 10.8 percent higher than January 2011. Pending home sales in the South increased 7.7 percent to an index of 109.1 in January and are 10.5 percent above a year ago. In the West the index fell 4.4 percent in January to 101.9 but is 0.7 percent above January 2011.

“Movements in the index have been uneven, reflecting the headwinds of tight credit, but job gains, high affordability and rising rents are hopefully pushing the market into what appears to be a sustained housing recovery,” Yun said. “If and when credit availability conditions return to normal, home sales will likely get a 15 percent boost, speed up the home-price recovery, and thereby significantly reduce the number of homeowners who are underwater.”

The National Association of Realtors®, “The Voice for Real Estate,” is America’s largest trade association, representing 1 million members involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate industries.

via realtor.org