HVCC is a Disaster! Sign Petition Today

HVCC (Home Valuation Code of Conduct) is turning out to be costing buyers hundreds of dollars in additional fees and closing costs (average of over $700) and the appraisal management companies are forcing good appraisers to leave the industry and costing thousands in home values and lost deals! I encourage each of you to view for yourself what this BAD law is producing, sign the petition and then contact your government representatives to vote yes on the House Bill.

Price Reductions Average 10.4%

Real estate research site Trulia.com says 24.6 percent of current homes on the market in the United States as of July 1, have had at least one price cut, totaling $27.1 billion in reductions.
The average price-reduced home has had a 10.4 percent reduction, down slightly from 10.6 percent as of June 1. Some areas appear to be stabilizing quickly with the overall number and percentage of price reductions declining, including Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Dallas, Washington, D.C., and Baltimore.
“All real estate is local and we’re seeing glimmers of hope as price stabilization occurs in major cities across the nation, including some of the earliest hit cities that have experienced huge declines in the past few years,” says Trulia CEO Pete Flint.
The top-10 cities with the most price reductions as of July 1 are:

1. Jacksonville, Fla., 39 percent
2. Boston, 35 percent
3. Minneapolis, 33 percent
4. Milwaukee, 33 percent
5. Honolulu, 33 percent
6. Tucson, Ariz., 31 percent
7. Chicago, 31 percent
8. New York, 31 percent
9. Austin, Texas, 31 percent
10. Raleigh, N.C., 31 percent

Increase exposure for your listings by getting them their own individual website. Uploaded to all major real estate search engines and posted to craigslist a minimum of 2 times a week, this website is proving to increase your listing successes and provide buyer leads! The cost for this is only $24/year through our participation partnership! For details, go to http://www.AgentSignIn.com

May Day Brings Changes

A whole new world started May 1 as all lenders scurried to form their new appraisal ordering policies for conventional Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans. Even at the last hour, lenders were hoping for a reprieve which never materialized. Here are the new rules, and they WILL affect your buyers:

1. No loan officer will be able to order an appraisal. All appraisal orders will go through the lender.
2. Payments for the appraisal will be paid for by the buyer immediately. No more waiting for the closing date to come around.
3. Appraisal Management Companies (AMC's) will assign appraisers and make up to half the fee charged. (Interesting fact - Some AMC's are owned by Banks)
4. The industry is expecting delays in the appraisal process.
5. A lot of great appraisers are refusing to sign up for this. They see it as the AMC's taking half their fee and having to do twice as much work to make the same money. This leaves the AMC's using appraisers that are new to the business, less-experienced, or maybe not very good. (Good luck with those values!)
6. Borrowers will get a copy of the appraisal sent to them 3 days prior to closing.
7. If you change lenders, you may not be able to use the appraisal and your buyer will have to pay for another one.
8. Although geared towards conventional only right now, some lenders are already saying they will use the same system for FHA loans. (Again - some AMC's are owned by banks).
9. VA buyers will still have appraiser assigned by VA.
10. Your loan officer will have NO contact with the appraiser!
11. The appraiser assigned may come from outside the immediate market area.
12. PLAN NOW! - Consider extending closing dates by 15 days as lenders struggle to work through the growing pains of this new system.

Lenders Begin to Tighten FHA Loans

Mortgage banks are further tightening FHA loans. The first item to notice is that the previous lending limit of $417,000 between FHA normal limits and FHA Jumbo limits now has to include the UFMIP (up-front mortgage insurance premium) while previously it could be added to the $417,000 maximum normal limit. The next item to change is that a 660 (up from 620) credit score will now be required on FHA Jumbo loans and it must include a DU approve eligible through the FHA Total Scorecard Underwriting System. Purchases with a loan-to-value above 95% will require a FULL 2nd appraisal. Your buyers will need to be prepared also for an anticipated raise in FHA appraisal prices as the industry moves to a nationalization of appraisal ordering on May 1st. We have already been advised by some of these companies that they will be charging up to $600 for an FHA appraisal. That would be $1200 for 2 on FHA Jumbos.

These guidelines are effective immediately with several lenders and it will run through the rest of them as days go by. Rest assured, we will keep you informed here in this blog of any agency guideline changes.

Do other agents a favor and suggest this blog.
For marketing tips and tools, go to http://www.AgentSignIn.com

UPDATE ON THE $8000 TAX CREDIT!

A website listing all the details concerning the $8000 first time buyer credit can be found at http://www.GiveMe8000.info and it includes program guidelines and links to the IRS forms necessary to obtain your credit. Make sure all of your past clients know of the firstime buyer credit of $7500 for last year and the new one for this year. This is a great reason to call past clients and then ask if they know anyone that wants the tax credit too!

Need Marketing Help?

You have heard it before. You must create an USP (unique selling proposition) to set yourself apart from all the other agents out there. While there are a multitude of marketing ideas and programs (most of which cost money), there are some ideas that cost little to nothing to implement and there success toward helping you reach your goals is only determined upon your own ability to follow through.
Here are some ideas:

1. Make sure every listing you have has it's own internet website.
2. Have your own website seperate from the one your company may provide.
3. With your website in place, begin to blog.
4. Join website communities like BrokerVoice, Facebook, Twitter, and other internet environments that can showcase your talents.
5. Consider just how much your existing loan officer helps you in your marketing efforts. Beyond getting deals closed, are they providing leads or helping you further your career?
6. Follow blogs that relate to real estate and try to get in tune with what is happening in the industry beyond just the negative rantings and boo-hooing out there.
7. Think positively about how you can use news to your advantage.

You can start using items 1 & 2 by visiting http://www.AgentSignIn.com to get your own personal website up and running and get individual websites for each of your listings. Both of these are FREE to you by the companies we use for our systems and I am more than happy to help anyone to get up and running.
Final TIP: Make sure you follow this blog for news and success tips! Subscribe today.

Changes - They Are A-Comin'

We are hearing different things from the street regarding government FICO score changes.
There are changes looming on price adjustments for FHA and VA loans, we just don’t know
when they will take effect.

>620 Minimum FICO score for FHA and VA purchase and rate/term refinances.

>620 Minimum FICO for FHA streamline loans.

We do know for certain that as of March 9, 2009, all VA Interest Rate Reduction Refinance Loan
(IRRRL) transactions, must have a minimum FICO score of 620.

So, everything we hear has 620 being the magic score for every type of loan out there currently. In this age of "responsible" lending, lenders and their associated investors want to shore up their portfolios with "good" loans only. We see M.I. companies pushing towards 740 has a prime score for conventional conforming loans with heavy fees if the score is lower than that. The above 620 score seems to be where the government loans are going to settle.

As you begin to talk with potential home buyers (renters especially), it is increasingly obvious to me that as soon as someone makes the decision to head towards home buying, they need to have an experienced loan officer begin to evaluate their credit report and scoring and allow sufficient time for corrections to be made to get the highest score possible prior to actually pulling the trigger for loan preapproval. Your buyers will thank you for it!