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Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Avoiding loan-modification hoaxes


Sacramento Real Estate house money - Doug Reynolds Real Estate - www.SellWithDoug

Homeowners wary of being taken in by bogus “loan modification specialists” should not assume that a law office is the most reliable way to work with their lender.  Consumer advocates say a growing number of fraudulent modification services involve lawyers, or people who say they are lawyers.
Making sense of the story

- Increasingly, lawyers are lending “their names, their offices, their credentials” to fraudulent operations that vaunt superior skills in obtaining loan modifications, according to a senior counselor at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law in Washington.
- While Federal Trade Commission rules generally prohibit demanding upfront fees for mortgage relief services, there is a narrow exception for lawyers.
- Under the rules, a lawyer may charge clients in advance for assistance if the service is part of their general practice of law, and not outside of that practice.
- Certainly, many lawyers provide legitimate foreclosure-avoidance services, but borrowers should know that when going to a lawyer whose sole business is loan modifications, that is a red flag.
- As more homeowners become aware of these tactics, some operations are changing their practices.  Instead of selling loan modification services, they are advertising so-called loan workouts and forensic loan audits. Some are even posing as nonprofit groups.
- The Homeownership Preservation Foundation and the Lawyers’ Committee both belong to a coalition of public and private agencies that maintain a national database of loan-modification complaints.  Since March 2010, some 28,000 homeowners have reported potential fraud.  Their reported monetary losses total around $66 million.
- Counseling services offered by the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development are free of charge.  Visithttp://www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/sfh/hcc/hcs.cfm to find a HUD-approved counselor.


clear skies,
Doug Reynolds
 
www.BHGshortsales.com

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Sacramento Real Estate February - March 2013 video Market Update




Doug Reynolds, a Sacramento Area Realtor, discusses the latest real estate statistics for January 2013 in Sacramento County.  The median price has reached $200,000 for the first time since August 2008.  He also discusses the current sellers market.  Connect with Doug Reynolds Real Estate via Facebook, YouTube and Blogger.

clear skies,
Doug Reynolds
 
www.BHGshortsales.com

Friday, February 22, 2013

Freddie Mac economist makes '13 housing predictions


Freddie Mac
AP file photo.

Frank Nothaft, chief economist for mortgage giant Freddie Mac, is in San Diego this weekend for the American Economic Association annual meeting. He took some time Friday to talk to U-T San Diego about his national and regional predictions for housing in 2013. Here are some excerpts:
On housing activity: It began to turn around in 2012 and will continue to pick up in 2013. Housing starts nationwide were up 25 percent in 2012 from 2011. Home sales were up about 9 percent during that same time frame. Housing starts this year may rise an additional 20 percent to 25 percent and home sales may rise another 8 percent to 10 percent. Southern California also will see pickup in home prices and sales.
On mortgage rates: Mortgage rates are going to stay at a very low level, mainly due to the Federal Reserve’s decision to continue buying up large quantities of mortgage-backed securities. That pushes up the price of those securities, which reduces the yield and drives the very-low interest rates. The 30-year fixed conforming loan rate is expected to remain below 4 percent.
On distressed levels: Foreclosures remain at relatively high levels but the nation’s so-called “shadow inventory” has come down appreciably during the past two, three years. Still, there are about 3 million homes in the nation that are seriously delinquent on their mortgages. But again, that’s fallen appreciably, dropping by 1.5 million. We should also expect the bank-owned home supply to be limited over the course of 2013.
On the progress of the recovery: “The Fed recognized that the housing market has been the laggard (among the economic sectors.) And that’s why they introduced Operation Twist and the third round of quantitative easing in order to push mortgage rates to these record-low levels. And in order to really stimulate housing activity. Indeed, I think they have been successful in what we’ve seen in the past year,” he said.
clear skies,
Doug Reynolds
 
www.BHGshortsales.com
 

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

COLLEGE-GLEN TOWN HALL MEETING


Thursday, February 21st
6:00pm - 7:30pm
@ College Greens Swim & Racquet Club
2707 Notre Dame Drive
Please come share your thoughts with Councilmember McCarty.  City staff will be on hand to answer questions, as well as a representative from AT&T to discuss the on-going work in the neighborhood.
For more information, please call 808-7006
Doug Reynolds Real Estate - College Greens Glenbrook College Greens East - www.CollegeGlenRealEstate.com - Sacramento, Ca

From the Desk of Councilmember Kevin McCarty

Please join me for a College-Glen Town Hall meeting at theCollege Greens Swim and Racquet Club on Thursday, February 21, 2013 from 6:00 – 7:30 pm. As I begin my third term, I look forward to talking with you about neighborhood, District 6 and City issues. City staff will be on hand to answer questions, as well as an AT&T representative to discuss the on-going work being done in the neighborhood.
With an economic recovery on the horizon and the implementation of our sales-tax measure (Measure U), I look forward to restoring vital city services for our residents. Measure U passed in November with Sacramentans voting 64% - 36% for a temporary 1/2-cent sales tax to restore City services. The sales tax will expire automatically in six years and includes an independent annual financial audit and a citizen oversight committee. Measure U will be used to restore police and fire services, park maintenance, gang and youth violence prevention, swimming pools, youth services, senior services, libraries, and other essential services that have been cut over the last five years. As it is estimated that the sales-tax measure will raise approximately $28 million per year, the City Council has already begun the process of analyzing all of its liabilities, capital investments and priorities. In January and February, the Council will be examining the Measure U principles and budget priorities. In May and June, the Council will hold a series of public budget hearings and finalize their spending plan. Please feel free to contact me with any ideas or feedback regarding this process.
clear skies,
Doug Reynolds
 
www.BHGshortsales.com

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Housing a Sweet Spot for Economy as Rebound Extends to 2013


Real Estate Prices set to rise in 2013 - Doug Reynolds Real Estate - Sacramento, Ca - www.SellWithDoug

John GittelsohnJan 04, 2013 1:20 pm ET Jan. 4 (Bloomberg) --
At Lambert Ranch, an Irvine, California, housing development where prices start at $1 million, just two of 98 homes are unsold since the project opened in May.
The builder, New Home Co., is opening 14 neighborhoods in California this year for buyers who want to seize on low interest rates amid a scarce supply of homes for sale.
“Everywhere we are, we can see it,” Larry Webb, chief executive officer of Aliso Viejo, California-based New Home, said in a telephone interview. “Talk about pent-up demand.”
U.S. home sales and prices are poised to rise in 2013, solidifying a recovery that began last year after a half-decade slump that was the deepest since the Great Depression, according to analysts and economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Record-low mortgage rates and attractive prices, supported by declining unemployment, are luring buyers as the inventory of distressed homes shrinks. Homebuilders are responding by adding supply, bolstering economic growth.
“Increased new residential construction activity will lead to employment gains, which should translate into higher consumption and modest GDP growth,” Robert Wetenhall, a homebuilding analyst with RBC Capital Markets LLC in New York, said in a telephone interview. The U.S. budget deal reached this week removes a cloud to that outlook, he said.
Sales Gains
Sales of existing homes will rise about 7.2 percent in 2013 to 4.98 million, the highest since 2007, based on the median estimates of 15 economists and housing analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News for this story. Prices will gain 3.3 percent after an estimated 4.5 percent jump in 2012, according to the forecasters, who used varying measures of values.
Building is set to jump after the inventory of new homes fell last year to the lowest level in half a century. Housing starts, including single- and multifamily units, are expected to increase 24 percent to 967,000 in 2013, the most since 2007, according to the median of 17 estimates. Starts will reach an annual pace of 1 million by the end of this year and 1.5 million by the end of 2016, according to a report today by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analysts led by Hui Shan, who said housing will remain a “bright spot” in 2013.
Purchases of new single-family houses will climb 23 percent to 448,000 this year, extending last year’s rebound from a record low 306,000 in 2011, according to estimates of 17 analysts surveyed for this story.
“We expect housing to continue this momentum into 2013 and in fact show stronger growth rates due to pent-up demand,” Mark Kiesel, managing director at Pacific Investment Management Co. in Newport Beach, California, wrote in an e-mail.
Buying Home
Kiesel, who predicted the home-price bubble would burst in 2006, is betting on an extended housing recovery with his investors’ money and his own. In May, six years after selling his last house near the real estate peak, Kiesel bought a Newport Beach home in a sign of his conviction that prices had bottomed. The Pimco Investment Grade Corporate Bond fund outperformed the broader Barclays US Credit index in 2012 because of its housing-related investments, he said.
“Residential investments potentially could grow between 20 percent and 30 percent” in 2013, adding as much as 0.75 percent to U.S. gross domestic product growth, he said.
The U.S. economy expanded at an annual pace of 3.1 percent in the third quarter, the Commerce Department said Dec. 20. Residential fixed investment climbed almost 14 percent from a year earlier to $370.9 billion, its highest level since the end of 2008. Gross domestic product will increase 2 percent this year, based on the median of 85 estimates in a Bloomberg survey.
Jobs Growth
U.S. payrolls rose by 155,000 workers last month following a revised 161,000 advance in November that was more than initially estimated, Labor Department figures showed today. The unemployment rate matched a four-year low, at 7.8 percent.
While new-home sales are at about a third of the level they were at the peak in 2005, builders are growing more bullish. The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing market index last month rose to its highest level since April 2006. The gauge, in which a number above 50 indicates more builders view sales conditions as good than poor, reached 47, compared with a low of 8 in January 2009.
The Standard & Poor’s Supercomposite Homebuilding Index jumped 84 percent last year, the best performance since 2003. PulteGroup Inc., the largest U.S. homebuilder by revenue, surged 188 percent for the biggest gain in the entire S&P 500.
‘Virtuous Circle’
Increases in home prices, construction employment and consumer optimism can restart the “virtuous circle,” shifting housing from an economic drag to an economic engine, according to Michael Widner, an analyst with Stifel Nicolaus & Co.
“We see 2013 as the year the housing story progresses from ‘no way’ to consensus, and the GDP and job growth tailwinds being sustainable through 2015,” Widner, based in Baltimore, wrote in a Dec. 19 note.
Homebuilders have added another 2.8 percent in the last two days after the government’s budget deal. The agreement keeps homeownership tax benefits, such as the deductibility of mortgage insurance premiums and limits on capital gains taxes, which may help boost home sales, said Michael Rehaut, a homebuilding analyst with JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York.
“Not only do we view it as a positive that these favorable provisions remain in place, but additionally, this result continues to support our view that the emerging housing recovery remains a top economic priority for the White House, Congress and the Fed,” Rehaut wrote in a Jan. 2 note.
Uncertain Outlook
Not everyone is convinced the worst is over. Robert Shiller, co-creator of the Case-Shiller index, said the outlook for home prices is “highly uncertain” because more people are becoming renters rather than buyers. The number of U.S. occupied residences increased by a net 1.15 million in the 12 months through Sept. 30, with a gain of 1.32 million rentals and a drop of 175,000 owner-occupied homes, according to the Commerce Department.
“We’ve seen a decline in general interest in home ownership,” Shiller, a professor of economics at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, said Dec. 27 on Bloomberg Television. “We’re seeing rentals rise. Our permit data show that new construction has tilted toward multifamily.”
Based on home sales, construction starts and mortgage delinquencies, the housing market is “halfway back to normal,” said Jed Kolko, chief economist of Trulia Inc., a San Francisco- based real estate website operator.
Houston, Chicago
“It’s likely that it will be another three years or so -- maybe the end of 2015 or the start of 2016 -- before we see that market nationally back to normal,” Kolko said in a Dec. 26 interview on Bloomberg Television. “Some local markets, like Houston and the San Francisco Bay area, are actually close to where the normal areas are. Whereas others, like Chicago and Atlanta, are a long, long way from normal.”
Home prices rose 4.3 percent in October from a year earlier, the biggest year-over-year price gain since May 2010, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller index of 20 cities. The gauge is up almost 9 percent since hitting a 10-year low in March. It fell as much as 35 percent from a July 2006 peak.
Competition among buyers seeking to take advantage of low prices and record-low interest rates propelled the price gains, Kolko said. The rate for a 30-year fixed loan tumbled to an all- time low of 3.31 percent in November, according to Freddie Mac. The number of homes listed for sale that month fell to the fewest since December 2001, data from the National Association of Realtors show.
Underwater Homeowners
“Price increases will spur more new construction, which will add to inventory,” Kolko said in an e-mail. “And price increases will lift some underwater borrowers back above water, encouraging some of them to sell,” he said, referring to homeowners who owe more than their property is worth.
More homeowners who awaited higher prices are preparing to list their houses this year by painting, laying carpets and sprucing up kitchens and bathrooms, said Alan Smith, a broker with Re/Max Professionals in Littleton, Colorado.
“There’s a lot of updating going on so they’re ready to go to market,” Smith said in a telephone interview from his office in the Denver area, where prices climbed 6.9 percent in the 12 months through October. “A lot of folks’ homes are tired and they haven’t had the money or the time to update them.”
The estimated 11 million underwater homeowners have created a “paradox of negative equity,” according to Sam Khater, senior economist for CoreLogic Inc., an Irvine, California-based real estate data service. Because they can’t sell without taking a loss, these homeowners have helped drive up prices by limiting inventory listed for sale, he said.
Distressed Sales
Distressed home deals already account for a smaller share of transactions. In November, 22 percent of resales were foreclosures or short sales, when the lender agrees to sell for a loss. That was down from 29 percent a year earlier, according to the Realtors group.
The decrease is helping to boost home-price indexes and creating a false sense of a healthier market, said Michael Feder, CEO of Radar Logic Inc., a New York-based property price research company.
“We are not in a real housing recovery yet,” he said in an e-mail. “Current signs of improvement could evaporate quickly.”
Blackstone Buying
Distressed-home inventory has been drying up as investors purchase foreclosed properties and other low-cost homes. Blackstone Group LP, the world’s largest private-equity firm, has been buying as much as $100 million of homes a week to manage as rentals or sell when prices rise.
“We think there’s a lot more home price appreciation to go,” Blackstone President Tony James said at a Dec. 5 conference in New York sponsored by Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
Homes that were seriously delinquent, in the foreclosure process and not yet listed for sale, known as the shadow inventory, shrank 12 percent in the 12 months through October to 2.3 million units, CoreLogic reported Jan. 2.
“Given the long foreclosure timelines in many states, the current shadow inventory stock represents little immediate threat to a significant swing in housing market supply,” Mark Fleming, CoreLogic’s chief economist, said in a statement. “Investor demand will help to absorb the already foreclosed and REO properties in the shadow inventory in 2013.”
Buyer Traffic
Builders such as New Home’s Webb are seeing a lot of interest from prospective buyers. More than 6,500 people visited Lambert Ranch’s model homes on opening weekend in May, and high traffic continues from homeseekers with resources to buy, Webb said.
Shoppers will soon have more options. In Orange County, California, where New Home Co. is based, two dozen subdivisions are opening this year, the most since 2006, Webb said.
Webb, a homebuilder for 25 years, co-founded the New Home Co. in 2009 after his previous company, John Laing Homes, went through bankruptcy liquidation. Just three years earlier, as the housing prices were about to crash, John Laing was sold for $1.05 billion to Emaar Properties PJSC, a Dubai-based developer.
“We’re not looking for some crazy boom,” Webb said. “We’d just like to see consistent sales and modest price appreciation.”
--With assistance from Prashant Gopal in Boston. Editors: Kara Wetzel, Larry Edelman

clear skies,
Doug Reynolds
 
www.BHGshortsales.com

Monday, February 18, 2013

Home Prices Poised for Growth in 2013


Real estate recovery - www.SellWithDoug.com - Doug Reynolds Real Estate



By Stefanos Chen


In stark contrast to this time last year, the housing market is chugging into 2013 with a head of steam.
Home-listing prices were up 5.1% nationally in December on a year-over-year basis, according to data released Thursday by real-estate listings and data company Trulia. Out of the 100 major metro markets covered by the report, 82 of them saw year-over-year gains. At the end of 2011, asking prices had fallen 4.3%, and only 12 markets had posted positive price changes.
“Prices are going into 2013 with strong tailwinds,” said Jed Kolko, chief economist for Trulia. He cites a general strengthening of the job market, which in turn means more families able to cover a sizeable down payment. An increase in household formation, which is also the product of improving job prospects, and home construction could further bolster demand.
Mr. Kolko notes that the sharpest tightening of inventory is taking place in Western states. Four of the top 10 cities to see the largest asking price recovery were in California, including Oakland, San Jose, Sacramento and Fresno.
Las Vegas, which was hit hard after the bubble burst, came in at the top of the list with a 16.3% year-over-year listing price increase. In the same period in 2011, prices dropped 11.2%.
To be sure, even among the markets with major gains, some are better positioned for a sustained housing recovery than others.
While Las Vegas may have seen the largest asking price turnaround, it remains far below pre-bust levels. The problem, Mr. Kolko says, is that the market remains unstable, with high vacancy rates, lingering foreclosures and subpar job growth.
On the other hand, metros like Seattle, which came in second on the list of cities with the highest asking-price recovery, are on a smoother path to growth because of their strong economic fundamentals, he said.
Meanwhile, rents rose nationally 5.2% in the same period. In 17 of the 25 biggest rental markets, home prices are rising faster than rents, according to Trulia. Whereas ownership was typically more affordable than renting in most markets in recent years, as sales demand rises, that edge is becoming less apparent, Mr. Kolko said.
clear skies,
Doug Reynolds
 
www.BHGshortsales.com

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Good news about real estate: Home equity is growing again


After hitting a low of $6.45 trillion in the final quarter of 2011, Americans' combined home equity jumped 20% during the next nine months to $7.71 trillion.

Housing markets improving - Doug Reynolds Real Estate Sacramento Ca 
WASHINGTON —With all the nail biting over fiscal policy and the economy in the closing weeks of 2012, you might have missed some of the positive trends under way for real estate.
Start with home equity. It's growing again significantly after five years of declines and stagnation. This is a huge piece of good news that hasn't received much attention. After hitting a low of $6.45 trillion in the final three months of 2011, Americans' combined home equity jumped nearly $1.3 trillion during the next nine months to $7.71 trillion — a 20% gain — according to the "flow of funds" quarterly estimate released in December by the Federal Reserve.
A homeowner's equity is the difference between the market value of his or her house and the amount of mortgage debt it is carrying. If your real estate would sell for $400,000 and you have a mortgage balance of $200,000, your equity is $200,000.
Equity is a key measure of wealth — often the largest single item on a family's financial balance sheet — and the Federal Reserve tracks the estimated equity holdings of millions of owners to come up with its quarterly numbers. As recently as 2007, homeowners' collective equity exceeded $10.2 trillion. Between that year and late 2011, owners lost nearly $4 trillion in real estate wealth.
So the $1.3-trillion turnaround during the first nine months of 2012 was a big deal. It reflected the first sustained rebound in home prices in a long time in many — though not all — local real estate markets. In a study released just before Christmas, researchers at Zillow.com found that of 177 major metropolitan markets, 135 had experienced net increases in cumulative home values during 2012.
Zillow broke it down into specific dollar amounts added to owners' net worth, city by city: Owners in Los Angeles gained a cumulative $122.1 billion during the year; Washington, D.C., owners gained $40.4 billion; San Diego, $31.2 billion; Seattle, $20.1 billion, Boston just under $16 billion; Tampa, Fla., $8 billion: Sarasota, Fla., $5 billion; Tucson, $3.8 billion; Oklahoma City, $3.3 billion; and Columbus, Ohio, $3.5 billion.
These are big numbers and hard to grasp, but think of it this way: The odds are good that even if you own a home in a market that experienced severe price declines during the housing bust, the value of your home rose last year, at least modestly. Even if you have negative equity, it's likely that, thanks to appreciation in your area and your continuing payment of principal on your mortgage, your equity position improved.
Some of the most impressive gains in values were in areas that suffered the deepest price plunges — and the most painful losses in owners' equity — between 2007 and 2011. According to a study by Realtor.com, list prices of houses in Phoenix were 21.4% higher in November than they were 12 months earlier. In the Riverside-San Bernardino metropolitan area, prices were up 13.3%; in Las Vegas 10.6%; and in Miami 10%.
What's causing price surges like these in cities that cratered just a few years back? Part of it is a recognition by buyers, including investors, that prices hit bottom and won't drop any further. The intrinsic economic value of houses and land simply exceeded the near-giveaway, foreclosure-sale prices prevalent in the post-recession years. Now prices are correcting upward as buyers come back into the market.
But something else has been at work: Virtually all major real estate markets across the country have seen declines in the availability of homes for sale, in part because some sellers still fear that they won't get a good price, and because in some areas large numbers of potential sellers are still underwater on their mortgages. In Seattle, there were 43% fewer homes listed for sale toward the end of 2012 than at the same time the year before. In San Francisco, the deficit was 415; in Los Angeles 37.5%; and in metropolitan Washington around 28%.
Fewer listings mean more competition for what's available for sale. That can bring multiple offers, higher prices and even the return of escalation clauses in contracts, where buyers' offers contain automatic increases in multiple bid situations. That's already well underway in parts of California, the Pacific Northwest and Washington, D.C., among other areas.
Ultimately, higher prices should begin to convince more sellers that they should list their homes, pushing inventory higher and creating a healthier, more balanced real estate environment for 2013.
clear skies,
Doug Reynolds
 
www.BHGshortsales.com

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Mortgage debt relief extended for homeowners


Debt Relief - Doug Reynolds Real Estate - www.SellWithDoug


A law that gives financially strained home-sellers tax relief on forgiven mortgage debt has been extended through 2013 as part of "fiscal cliff" talks.
Mortgage debt that's been forgiven by lenders in short sales or loan workouts is typically taxable, which means money coming out of borrowers' pocketbooks. Help arrived in 2007, when the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act came to be, giving people a break from taxable income on loan balances of up to $2 million, or $1 million for a married tax filer who's submitting a separate return.
That law was set to expire at the start of 2013 but was among the individual tax breaks saved in the fiscal-cliff deal. Local real estate professionals kept a close watch on its future because roughly 30 percent of home resales in San Diego County are short sales, deals in which homeowners sell their properties for less than what they owe as long as banks approve.
These types of deals surged in 2012 mainly because of a national mortgage settlement that forces banks to offer consumers housing relief. Roughly two-thirds of the help offered to California borrowers in the deal arrived in the form of short sales.
The expiration of the mortgage-debt relief act could have led to serious economic consequences for San Diego County and other parts of the nation, said local housing analyst Alan Nevin. Possible outcomes included a surge in bankruptcies and foreclosures because certain borrowers would have been stuck with a tax bill after a short sale or loan modification.
The law's expiration also could have slashed the county's already lower-than-normal housing inventory, Nevin added. Without the tax benefit, fewer homeowners would have attempted to do short sales, which would mean fewer homes entering an already slimmed-down market.
"If it was not extended, there would've been a number of people who also would have just let their homes go back to the lender," Nevin added.
Not all forgiven mortgage debt is taxable. To be sure, ask a tax professional about the tax consequences of completing a short sale or loan modification.
clear skies,
Doug Reynolds
 
www.BHGshortsales.com

Monday, February 11, 2013

Writing the Short Sale “hardship letter”


Short Sale Hardship Letter - Doug Reynolds Real Estate - www.SellWithDoug.com
Homeowners having trouble paying their mortgage are often required to write a hardship letter when applying for a loan modification.  Such a letter is a requirement for modification applications under the government’s Making Home Affordable program.
Making sense of the story
  • A hardship letter is not the basis for modification approval – that depends on the borrower’s financials and the intricacies of the various government and in-house lender programs.  The purpose of the hardship letter is to explain upfront why borrowers missed payments, and what they propose as a solution.

  • Some housing experts recommend that homeowners write short letters, using the philosophy that “less is more.”  The lenders’ loss mitigators, faced with mountains of modification requests, are unlikely to spend time reading more than the first few lines of each letter.  Also, there is the risk that borrowers who go on at length could unknowingly trip themselves up with unnecessary details that raise red flags for a mitigator.

  • The hardship letter should open with a succinct explanation of why the borrower stopped paying the mortgage.  The letter should cite a specific hardship, like a lost job, illness, or reduced income.

  • Next, the letter should briefly cite any steps the borrower took to avoid defaulting on their loan, like cutting household expenses or tapping in to savings.

  • If the borrower’s financial situation has since improved, or is likely to, borrowers should mention that as evidence that their hardship was temporary and won’t hamper their ability to make payments on a modified loan.

  • Finally, the letter should state exactly what borrowers are applying for.  Is the proposed solution a lower interest rate, for example, or a principal reduction?

  • Borrowers who are underwater – those who owe more on their mortgage than their property is worth – may ask their lender to consider a short sale, in which the house is sold to another buyer for less than the amount owed.

clear skies,
Doug Reynolds
 
www.BHGshortsales.com

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

College Greens / Glenbrook Sales in January 2013 (Sacramento, Ca)



There were 9 homes sold in College Greens / Glenbrook / Larchmont / College Greens East for the month of January, 2013.  That is slightly down from the 10 sold in December, 2012.  Traditionally the neighborhood has a lower amount of sales from December through February.  Here are the addresses and specific information of the sold properties.








Currently there are: 5 Active listings, 0 Active short sale listings, 7 Short Sales waiting for lender approval and 21 Pending Sales.


If you would like more information (pictures, listing history, what type of sales they were, etc.) feel free to call or email and I’d be happy to provide that for you.  Call or email me if you are looking to buy or sell in the 95826 zip code.  Check back each month for the updated statistics, as I keep a close eye on the 95826 zip code, where I live and own rental property.  Let me know if there are any particular properties you have questions about. 

clear skies,
Doug Reynolds
 

Rosemont Sales in January 2013 (Sacramento, Ca)



There were 9 homes sold in Rosemont in the month of January, 2013.  That is an decrease from the 13 that sold in December, 2012.  Here are the addresses and specific information.






 Currently there are: 5 Active listings, 3 Active short sale listings, 24 Short Sales waiting for lender approval and 19 Pending Sales

If you would like more information (pictures, listing history, what type of sales they were, etc.) feel free to call or email and I’d be happy to provide that for you.  Call or email me if you are looking to buy or sell in the 95826 zip code.  Check back each month for the updated statistics, as I keep a close eye on the 95826 zip code, where I live and own rental property.  Let me know if there are any particular properties you have questions about. 

clear skies,
Doug Reynolds
 
www.BHGshortsales.com

Monday, February 4, 2013

Thinking about buying a house at Auction???


Buying Real Estate at Auction - Doug Reynolds Real Estate - www.sellwithdoug

  • Many home buyers think that real estate auctions are the best way to get a good deal on a home.  While there are certainly deals to be had, auctions also can be dangerous for buyers.
  • Buyers planning to attend an auction are advised to do their homework and know what the property is worth, especially since auctions generally do not offer appraisal contingencies.
  • Buyers should know what repairs are needed and what it will cost to make the home livable.
  • Setting and sticking to a maximum price and not forgetting to include the buyer’s premium is critical.
  • Most importantly, maintain control.  Many auctions turn into feeding frenzies. The excitement of the moment leads to bidders getting carried away.
clear skies,
Doug Reynolds

 
www.BHGshortsales.com