Category Archives: Lewisboro

Restarting Mortgage Finance: Step 1 | Cross River NY Real Estate

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Recently the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released a much anticipated rule that finally gets the ball rolling on reform of the mortgage finance industry. Investors fled the market following the housing bust, reducing the flow of financing to borrowers. Likewise, many homebuyers were sold mortgage products that were untenable, resulting in damaged credit and lost savings. Transparency, verification and documentation are keys to restoring confidence from investors and homebuyers. The majority of the market will benefit from the new QM rule, but a subset of the market will likely face higher prices or lose access to financing all together.

The Qualified Mortgage rule, or QM, lays out basic requirements for lender underwriting. In short, the originator of the loan must verify all sources of income and assets and verify that the borrower has the ability to repay the mortgage (ATR). A number of loan types are prohibited from receiving the QM statu,s including those with negative amortization (balloon payments), interest-only features, as well as those with durations greater than 30-years. Finally, there is a cap on fees that lenders can charge of 3% (with an exception for loans under $100,000) and the back-end debt to income ratio (DTI) must be less than or equal to 43%.

Mortgages that qualify as a QM will be further bisected by those that have a rate 1.5% above the prime borrowing rate and those that do not. Loans below the 1.5% will receive special legal status known as a safe harbor, where the borrower in default must first prove that their loan was not affordable when originated in order to sue the lender. If the loan is QM and above the 1.5% rate threshold, then there is a rebuttable presumption where the lender must prove that the borrower had the ability to repay. Under the rebuttable presumption, even if the lender can prove the loan met the ATR, the lender incurs legal costs making the case of $70,000 to $110,000 [1] according to some industry analysts, while others analysts argue that the incidence of claims would be extremely low [2]. However, if the lender cannot demonstrate that the borrower had the ability to repay, then the lender faces new enhanced legal fees. Furthermore, the borrower’s ability to fight the foreclosure applies for the life of the loan, which would extend foreclosure timelines, increasing costs to banks. Lending outside of either definition of a QM may be sparse as the lender would have to raise rates further to compensate for litigation risk since these would fall outside either definition of a QM loan; these higher rates might then reach HOEPA limits.

via economistsoutlook.blogs.realtor.org

Whether you stay in or dine out today, home is where the heart is | Katonah Homes for Sale

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  • Data from the latest NAR Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers shows the number one reason buyers are buying today is for the plain desire to own a home of their own. They want a place where they can come home at night that is their special place in the world. The most common home purchased among buyers was a detached single-family home, with three bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and 1,900 square feet.
  • The typical buyer is satisfied with their buying process and plans to live in the perfect home for them for 15 years.
  • Data from the report show the highest share of home buyers are married couples compared to single buyers and unmarried couples. The share of married couples who purchased a home (65%) is actually at its highest share since 2001. Married couples typically have higher household incomes than single buyers and thus better purchasing power in today’s tightened financial market environment.
  • While married couples might have double the purchasing power of single females and single males when buying a home, they too are still making sacrifices to get into a home. Thirty-one percent of married couples who recently purchased a home cut spending on luxury items or non-essential goods, and 26 percent cut spending on entertainment. Perhaps the married home buying couple is dining-in tonight?
  • A sizeable amount of the market are still single females, single males and unmarried couples – more than one-third. While the married couples may be cooking in tonight, the single buyers and unmarried couples could be taking advantage of the neighborhood features that influenced their home purchase – proximity to friends and family, entertainment and leisure activities, and shopping.
  • Married, unmarried, single male, and single female, all recent home buyers will enjoy the quality of the neighborhood they picked – as it influenced the majority of all household types, and hopefully all will enjoy a good meal tonight, or at the least some tasty chocolate.
via economistsoutlook.blogs.realtor.org

Would gun ban violate tenants’ rights? | Katonah Real Estate

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Q: We own several large apartment complexes. After all that’s happened recently, we have decided that we do not want firearms on the property. Can we prohibit tenants from keeping them on the premises? Our manager says no, that people have a constitutional right to keep arms. –Dave and Bea M.

A: You do have a legal right to prohibit the keeping of firearms at your properties, just as you can prohibit tenants from keeping pets or parking oversize vehicles in your parking lots.

Your manager’s concerns are a bit off the mark: The United States Constitution (specifically, the Second Amendment, which concerns the people’s “right to bear arms”) is aimed at the government, not at individuals like you. So, while recent Supreme Court decisions have struck down attempts to restrict gun ownership, these cases have all involved states or localities whose laws have been found to infringe on the amendment. You are neither a state nor a locality. You are simply a business owner who has wide latitude in deciding how your run the business.

Should you instigate such a policy at your properties — more on how to do that below — you should be prepared for another argument you’re likely to hear. “That’s discrimination against gun owners!” will surely be lobbed your way. Again, nothing to fear, legally. That’s because gun owners are not a protected group under federal, state or local laws.

via inman.com

Would gun ban violate tenants’ rights? | Katonah Real Estate

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Q: We own several large apartment complexes. After all that’s happened recently, we have decided that we do not want firearms on the property. Can we prohibit tenants from keeping them on the premises? Our manager says no, that people have a constitutional right to keep arms. –Dave and Bea M.

A: You do have a legal right to prohibit the keeping of firearms at your properties, just as you can prohibit tenants from keeping pets or parking oversize vehicles in your parking lots.

Your manager’s concerns are a bit off the mark: The United States Constitution (specifically, the Second Amendment, which concerns the people’s “right to bear arms”) is aimed at the government, not at individuals like you. So, while recent Supreme Court decisions have struck down attempts to restrict gun ownership, these cases have all involved states or localities whose laws have been found to infringe on the amendment. You are neither a state nor a locality. You are simply a business owner who has wide latitude in deciding how your run the business.

Should you instigate such a policy at your properties — more on how to do that below — you should be prepared for another argument you’re likely to hear. “That’s discrimination against gun owners!” will surely be lobbed your way. Again, nothing to fear, legally. That’s because gun owners are not a protected group under federal, state or local laws.

via inman.com

Grow your international business with multilingual content | North Salem Realtor

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Janet ChoynowskiJanet Choynowski

Sales of U.S. property to international buyers are heating up. According to the National Association of Realtors, international sales were up 24 percent last year, representing 9 percent of the total residential market.

NAR’s member surveys show that in the 12-month period ending in March 2012, international buyers bought U.S. property valued at more than $82 billion, generating about $5 billion in real estate commissions.

NAR defines international buyers as not only those who live outside of the U.S., but also recent immigrants and temporary visa holders.

Article continues below

If international buyers perform a search for houses for sale in your city, does your website show up in their search results?

The chances are that your website is not being suggested to valuable international prospects unless you have taken steps to ensure that it can be indexed in other languages.

The reason is simple. Search engines are programmed to predict what their users want. That’s why when you perform a search in English, your search engine “knows” you expect to see results in English and that is what you get. The same is true for other languages.

Now here’s the catch: According to one estimate, about 72 percent of all people with Internet access speak a language other than English.

Because many people speak more than one language, it’s hard to say exactly what percentage of searches are conducted in a language other than English.

But across the globe, viewers get results that are relevant to them by using the approximately 165 international “Googles” and countless other regional search engines programmed to understand the habits and expectations of their own local users.

You can get a good feel for what a Brazilian prospect searching houses for sale in your market will encounter by performing this search: Visit www.Google.com.br and paste: “venda de casas em your city” into the search box to see which websites are included in the search results. You will find, no surprise, that the top search results are all websites with content in Brazilian Portuguese.

Buyers from Mexico were responsible for 8 percent of the international investment in U.S. residential property over the past year. A search on www.Google.com.mx for “Casas en venta en your city” will reveal who is most visible to prospects searching your area for houses for sale.

Chinese nationals made 11 percent of the 85 billion dollars in total international investment last year. A resident of China would likely visit www.Baidu.com to perform a search for ” your city 房产” to research your local real estate market. The search and results will be in Chinese of course.

Unless you already have some content in these languages, your website was probably not in any of the results above.

These search engines are programmed to deliver results in other languages and your English website is no more relevant to them than a page in Chinese is to Google.com.

There are two simple things you can do to start to improve your global visibility and increase the probability of attracting international prospects.

For a low tech and low cost solution, ask bilingual or multilingual associates or coworkers to write a few paragraphs about your local market in their own languages. Add this content to your website with links up at the top so search engines can easily index it. This content should actually be on a page within your website, not just linked from another site.

Write a blog in other languages if you can or hire someone to write the blog for you. Include hyperlinks from keywords in your blog post such as the translated phrases for “real estate for sale in your city” or “houses for sale in your city” linking back to relevant content on your website.

These small steps will allow international search engines to index your website and suggest it when an international prospect looks for real estate in your area.

Please do not add machine translation tools to your website in an effort to gain visibility, though.

This is what Google has to say: “We recommend that you do not allow automated translations to get indexed. Automated translations don’t always make sense and they could potentially be viewed as spam.”

Utilizing good-quality content in other languages can help you move your website to first-page results in the languages of your choice. After all, who knows where your next client might come from?

via inman.com