Sacramento Expert Short Sale Real Estate Agent

Posts Tagged ‘loans’

After being asked about FHA refinancing from numerous friends,  I decided to do some research on my own.   Here is some great information that I can bet many people do not know.

Everyone at this time is under the impression that you need equity in your home to refinance into another lower interest rate loan.  Yes this is true for the most part, except for FHA Loans.  Homeowners with existing FHA financing on their current home are able to refinance their current mortgage without having equity.  This is a different program called FHA Streamlined Refinancing.

 The new loan would not require to have the home appraised.  This is great news. A normal refinance without FHA, would require a new appraisal and would show the true value of the property which would not entitle them to refinance.

 Of course there are a couple draw backs to this situation, but if the rate will save you a considerable monthly amount, then I advise you to check it out at the link above for more information.

• To refinance a current FHA Mortgage into another one, the homeowner can not take out more of a loan than what is currently owed on the property.
• The homeowner also may not refinance the current loan if they have been delinquent in any mortgage payments in the last year.

 Terri Wisecarver

Sacramento Real Estate

       Heading Down an Unknown Road!!! 

When making a decision to sell your home without an agent being there to assist you, means that you are also taking on a lot of responsibilities that you are not ready for.  Not using a REALTOR® to help you sell your home can be costly in many ways that you are unaware of.  

 Commissions are negotiable with a broker and not set by law, so why not get the best help you have available to you?  Remember you get what you pay for. You want to be protected at all times when selling a home and this is what Realtors® get the training and experience doing. Realtors® just do not take a class then instantly their a Realtor®. We put tons of time in the field, taking class after class, after class learning regulations and laws which enables us to better serve you the client.  We get paid to give our best client service and protection to both the buyer and seller. Most of us EARN what we get from you the seller.

Here are a few things that you may not think about when it comes to selling your home on your own.

• You will need to be available at all times so that you will not miss out on a good potential buyer, this means 24/7 or at least 12/7. You will have looky loo’s stopping by, calling all the time just to see the inside of your home that are really only interested in seeing it.  Do you really want to trust a bunch of strangers coming through your front door?  Being aware of your surroundings at all times is not a comfortable position to be in.
• You will be paying out of your pocket for all the ads, “FOR SALE” sign to place on the property.  The ads are very costly these days
• You will need to locate all the legal  disclosures and such in the event a buyer wants to present an offer you can not refuse and then know exactly what they all mean. These can sometimes be difficult to understand and you the seller are held liable in the event that you do not disclose everything.
• How would you know if in fact an offer looks good?  Do not just look at the purchase price, as there are other fee’s associated with the selling process of your home. Is the offer presented to you asking for certain things from you the seller are not understanding?  Does the buyer really qualify? Lots of questions will go through your mind. Do you know what to ask in any case? If the offer is coming from a buyer with an agent, do or would you trust that person, as they are representing the buyer.

Now that this is out of the way, let me tell you a few benefits of using a Realtor® that might help you in making a decision.

• You will not need to be available all the time to show the home to potential buyers, as the agent will pre-screen the buyers and show the home for you. The agent uses a lock box that will allow only other agents to have access to your home which can be tracked in the event something might happen. No more sitting around waiting for the knock at the door or awaiting the phone to ring. 
• You will not be paying the costs of advertising your property by placing ads or buying signs.  The agent does this at no cost to you.  The agent ( Realtor ) has a vast amount of resources to market your property.
• You will not need to find any forms to fill out or purchase.  The agent also provides this for you and has the knowledge in knowing what all of this information means to you as the client. The agent is your protection as long as you are honest in your disclosure.  This transaction will also be somewhat protected by the broker representing you.
• The agent will explain the offer to purchase to you and be able to explain the contract in detail to you. Therefore eliminating all your questions and concerns you may have. 

Now this is not to say that many sellers out there have no problems with selling their home by themselves. I am just saying that is the amount you are saving on the commission worth all the headaches, hassles, and most of all your valuable TIME that you never get back?

Please feel free to contact me at anytime with any questions you may have. or feel free to post your comments as I welcome them.

Terri Wisecarver

REALTOR®

Whitman Metropolitan Inc.

Sacramento Real Estate

So this has been my experience in the last couple of months. 

 In showing numerous homes to a client I have come across some issues with what is known as Flipper Houses.  After looking through the MLS for homes that meet my clients needs/wants we came across a home that we wrote an offer on. But we are noticing that quite a few of these homes are stating NO FHA loans. After talking with the agent, he stated that the seller chose not to accept offers with this type of financing.  I then started to wonder if there were issues with the property that would not pass the FHA guidelines.  This seemed to be OK with my buyers as they were getting a conventional loan anyway.

Within the next two days from acceptance and much research between me and the lender we found out the home was a FORECLOSURE purchase at sacramento court house.  I then called the agent because I had some concerns about the seasoning requirement of this home purchased like this. The seller only had it for 45 days at this point.  I talked with buyers lender and I was then told that this could possibly be an issue with financing because most of the lenders have now changed their guidelines to match FHA with FLIP HOMES.  I had the buyers lender contact the lenders which we would be using, and verified this situation. I then contacted the agent and he actually tried to tell me this was not true.  My buyers decided to back out of the deal as they did not want the money, time and effort put in on a home that probably would a dead deal.

Now let me tell you this actually happened again, but this time the seller of the home did not record the deed when he purchased the home, therefore leaving me to do my investigations by obtaining a title history on the property to find out the same story. 

Third time a charm.  Another offer placed on a property that ended up being a Flipper in the same way, but my buyers decided to wait and continue to look around.  We then found a better home with everything they were looking for and of course multiple offers with ours accepted.  Ironically the listing agent (broker of 25yrs) did some investigations on his own and found out that I was right.  The listing agent  in the mean time has contacted me back to see if my buyers were still interested in the property., of course now that the 90 days is past.

Agents need to do all they can to protect the clients they have and do all investigations on properties.  Is this not what we are suppose to do.  I am thrilled to say that my buyers will be closing in the next fews weeks in a home they are so happy with.  Needs some work but value to them will be worth it and not just gaining equity. 

Terri Wisecarver

Real Estate Sacramento