Federal Housing Stimulus

Yet another good site I have found explaining the stimulus!

CLICK HERE

Please follow this link for a FREE copy of my new Intro to Charleston newcomers guide!!

NO MONTHLY PAYMENT? How would you like to purchase a home but have no monthly payment! What!!!  

• Are you over 62?
• Do you have 50% down towards the purchase of your home?

Click Here for an article on Reverse Mortgage Principles

If you would like to speak with one of my mortgage professionals please call me at 843-532-3214 and we'll discuss briefly some financing options.

Marshall

I came across this fabulous blog yesterday explaning Mark to Market accounting - Please give it a read!

Mark to Market

Your First Home ~ The Proven Path to Home Ownership

This fabulous book by Keller Williams founder Gary Keller will be one of the most important books you can read on the path to buying your first home!

Ask Marshall Walker, Cheryl Vincent or Debbie Heuer for your free copy ~ all we ask is that we prepare a needs analysis for you on your new home purchase.

We will discuss :

• Finances
• Financing - FHA, Conventional and FHA rehab
• Looking at Homes
• Offers ~ acceptance and Rejections
• Values ~ Low-balls and market Value of a home
• Inspections ~ Pest Infestation and Structural/Mechanical
• Closing Expectations ~  NO Surprises Please!
• Closing Cost
• Home Ownership

"We are here to earn you...

FHA 203K Lender needed !

Please contact marshall at 843-532-3214 if you have a good lender with a FULL 203k Package - we currently have a streamline 203k available which allows up to approximately $35,000 in repairs - however we are looking for additional products!

Final score: $8,000 for homebuyers

 First-time purchasers get a tax credit windfall if they buy before December. 

"I will qualify as a first-time home buyer, and I am currently set to get a small tax refund for 2008. Does that mean if I purchased now that I would get an extra $8,000 added on top of my current refund?"

The short answer? Yes, A buyer would get back the $8,000 plus what he'd overpaid. The long answer? It depends.

Here are three scenarios:

Scenario 1: Your final tax liability is normally $6,000. You've had taxes withheld from every paycheck and at the end of the year you've paid Uncle Sam $6,000. Since you've already paid him all you owe, you get the entire $8,000 ...

The annual MIP (paid monthly) will be canceled under the following conditions:

• For mortgages with terms of more than 15 years, the annual MIP will be cancelled when the LTV ratio reaches 78%, provided the mortgagor has paid the annual MIP for at least five years.

• For mortgages with terms 15 years and less and with the initial LTV ratios 90% and greater, the annual MIP (paid monthly) will be canceled when the LTV 78%, irrespective of the length of time the mortgagor has paid the annual MIP.

• Mortgages with terms 15 years and less and with initial LTV ratios of 89.99% and less will not be charged annual MIPs, but will continue to require payment of the upfront mor...

Credit Opt Out

I received a piece of mail from one of my lenders today.....and I actually read it. What I learned was that there is a National Opt-Out Center where you can have your name removed from the pre-approved credit lists maintained by the three major credit card companies which will effectively limit and reduce the number of credit and insurance solicitations that you receive in the post!

WOW!!

Contact them at the National Opt-Out center at 1-888-567-8688 

or online

www.optoutprescreen.com

for other information on privacy and protecting yourself contact the Federal Trade Commission

at

www.consumer.gov/idtheft

 Possible Slowings in Foreclosures?

Recently the Morgage Bankers Association  sported that the nunmber of homeowners being in their mortgages had reached 6.99% ~ However the report further states that the numbers of families just entering default has begun to drop.

The MBA NOTED THAT THE SLOWING IN NEW DEFAULTS IS NOT NECCESARILY A SIGN OF RECOVERY,  but that the new rescue efforts and foreclosure moratoriums may be beginning to take hold.

Shorts and Investments

In the past few days I have received call after call from homeowners who have decided that they just dont like that investment property any more......It may not have increased in value or it may have had terrible tenants that have left it in a mess....there are many reasons to hate an investment property nowadays! The most important distintion here is that IT IS NOT a PRIMARY residence - Most agent s will agree that banks will not accept a deficiency on an invest,ment property ~ WHAT! ~ thats right! Banks typically WILL NOT accept a short on investment properties ~ HOLD ON THOUGH ~ that may be a myth ~ we have a client who is set to close on the 30th of Jan whose l...

  •Short Sale:   A short sale is when a bank or mortgage lender agrees to discount a loan balance due to an economic or financial hardship on the part of the mortgagor. This negotiation is all done through communication with a bank's loss mitigation department. The home owner/debtor sells the mortgaged property for less than the outstanding balance of the loan, and turns over the proceeds of the sale to the lender in full satisfaction of the debt.  In such instances, the lender would have the right to approve or disapprove of a proposed sale.

Confidence may be rising?

With the weekend drawing to a close I am pleased to say that I have had an amazing amount of activity with both our listings and Buyers - with interest rates in the 4.5-4.75% buyers are saying "lets go look!"

Our new listings

• 149 Spring Street - 3 bed 2 bath condo $290k
• 1663 Marsh Harbor 4 bed 4.5 bath gated community with marina - slip avaiable - POA
• 1729 Alan Brook - 3 bed 2.5 bath The Village at Park West - clean clean clean! $255k - this is a MUST SEE

MARKET RECAP

Any goodwill the economy might have banked during the holiday weeks of Christmas and New Year was certainly depleted last week. Most of the news was bad, and in some cases bad in ways unseen in years.

To wit, the Federal Reserve's minutes from its mid-December meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (the committee that sets interest rates) revealed continued fears of a prolonged recession and a possibility of deflation. Some members indicated "the distinct possibility of a prolonged contraction." The minutes suggested that the Fed believes the economic outlook will remain weak "for a time" and hints that economic activity might be at substantial risk.

Consumers likely...

Enjoy the lowcountry for ALL it has to offer!

Some days we forget how blessed we are to live in Charleston - lets take a moment to forget about the State of the Economy and focus on our family, friends and othe people who are important to us - 

New Fannie Mae Loan Fees Target Condo Buyers, Among Others

When conforming mortgages started defaulting en masse in late-2007, mortgage guarantor Fannie Mae created a loss-offsetting, fee-generating scheme dubbed "loan-level pricing adjustments".

The concept was basic: For mortgage applicants with high-risk profiles, collect up-front payments to offset potential long-term losses. 

Similar to the auto insurance model in which younger drivers pay higher premiums, the riskier the applicant, the higher the fee.

At the inception of the program, Fannie Mae defined "risk" as a combination of borrower credit score and home equity percentage.  In general, lower FICOs and higher LTVs paid mo...

 
WILL MY CREDIT SCORE GO DOWN IF YOU PULL MY CREDIT?? 

The short answer to that question is -not much. Depending on which score version is used by Equifax, Experian or Trans Union you have 14 to 45 days to comparatively shop for a mortgage or auto. All mortgage and auto inquiries within a rolling 14 day to 45 day window only count as 1 inquiry. Even then the "ding" to your score will be very slight and will be recouped over the next 30 day cycle when you once again make all your payments on time.

For a more detailed explanation please visit www.myfico.com

Courtesy of

Melissa "The Mortgage Maven" Breeland

Residential Mortgage of SC

902 Savannah Hwy

Charleston, SC 29407

Best Phone: (843)...

Creditors voluntarily report information about you to Credit Bureaus. A credit bureau is a clearinghouse for credit history information. The bureau may also be referred to as a Credit Repository. Credit grantors provide the bureau with factual information on how their credit customers pay their bills. Each bureau assembles that information, along with public record information obtained from courthouses, into a file on each consumer. There are three major credit bureaus:

Equifax - (800) 685-1111, www.equifax.com
Experian - (888) 397-3742 , www.experian.com
Trans Union - (800) 916-8800 , www.transunion.com 

These national agencies maintain centralized databases containing the credit records...