Lynnwood, WA

My most recent sale in Lynnwood WA was a cute house with lots of wonderful upgrades. It had been remodeled extensively, but we still had a few things come up during inspection. There are a lot of things that the buyers may not have necessarily asked for from the seller, but I wanted to on their behalf and luckily they were open to my ideas.

1. Smoke Detectors were not working. The seller had already certified on the Snohomish county only NWMLS addendum 22Z that the smoke detectors were operational so it was a no brainer to just ask them to do what they had already promised to do. It wouldn't have cost them very much and again it wasn't asking them to do anything more than what they were legally required to do in Snohomish County anyway. The key issue for me was the safety of my clients once in to the house.

2. Roof getting older - because there still seemed to be life in the roof and with the state of appraisals today we went ahead and asked them to make necessary repairs and provide us with a five year roof cert from a licensed and bonded roofing professional.

3. The window had a big crack in it. The appraiser is going to most likely call this and besides who wants a broken window? The sellers had decided to just disclose it on the Form 17, but we went a head and asked for it to be fixed.

4. Lastly, I almost always ask the sellers to have the furnace serviced and to make any necessary repairs/replacements to ensure that there is a working and properly functioning furnace in the home at close. This means that if they call over a professional to service the furnace and there is a cracked heat exchanger, the wording is just enough so that the seller needs to repair it prior to close. The furnace servicer can not service the furnace if it is not working properly. Very important and I have gotten a lot of new furnaces this way for buyers when the furnace is broken or on its last leg.

We asked for other small things, but these were the biggies in my mind - Buying your first home can be extremely scary, but there are tons of things we can do as agents to make it easier and help you avoid pitfalls. Even the most highly remodeled home can have issues. Lynnwood Wa homes are a great place to start for a nice combination of amenities and economy!

Making the decision to refinance your house or put it up for sale has always been a life changing decision. Major changes to both the mortgage and real estate fields now greatly impact this decision. So today I’d like to explain some of these changes so that you can refinance with confidence.

A recent change in the mortgage industry now requires lenders to check if your home has been off the market for six months before they will help you refinance it. Real estate agents are showing that only 2-3% of their listings are selling every month. What this means for you is your house only has a 35% chance to sell If you list it for an entire year. If your payments will be unaffordable, it’s advised to refinance before trying to sell.

Another major change in the real estate industry is roughly half the transactions taking place are sales of distressed property. Distressed properties are bank owned foreclosures and properties with delinquent mortgages. These properties are liquidated far below normal market value. What this mean for you is that in order to sell you need to market your property and price aggressively to match these distressed property prices. The downside to this is if you mark down your property with an aggressive price but then decide to keep it and refinance, the low price you listed on the property is recorded on the refinance. For example, say a $260,000 house is discounted to sell fast at $220,000 but the seller has a change of heart and decided to keep it and refinance. The listed price of $220,000 is used as the value for the refinance. Talking to a real estate professional who is an expert on the eccentricities of your local market can save you from undercutting your own future by avoiding the scenario described above. They will have insight that will help guide your decision on when to sell or refinance.

Another major change is that mortgage insurance is becoming harder to obtain. It is no longer available to the average borrower. Because of this, the average borrower above 80% loan to value now needs to obtain a streamlined refinance from Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac through their Making Homes Affordable plan (MHA). The MHA is a short term plan instigated by the government to help during this economic recession. The MHA ends June 10, 2010. This date is the absolute deadline for MHA refinances, and should factor into your decision to refinance now. If you do not qualify for a normal refinance because your loan to value is over 80% and you don’t qualify for mortgage insurance, it’s important not to miss the June 10th deadline if you plan to refinance. And remember that your house must be off the market for a full six months prior to your refinance. If this applies to you and want assistance with your refinance or clarification of what your options are and the MHA, I’d be more than happy to help you. My contact information is on the right, and you can visit my profile here.

The last thing to take into consideration when selling your house is the value. The majority of houses selling in the Lynnwood area are in the $200,000 to $400,000 range. This makes refinancing condos, small, and custom homes much more difficult outside the summer months when most houses are sold. Lenders will not loan unless there are comparable sales within the last few months exist. If you are outside the range quoted above, the best chance for your house to sell and/or be refinanced is during the summer months.

When you do decide to sell, make sure that you are working with a local agent that demonstrates an in depth knowledge of your market area. This is especially true if you have a house outside the $200,000-400,000 range. You will be leaving money on the table if you discount your house too much because the agent you are working with doesn’t have their finger on the pulse of the local area, and therefore doesn't know how your particular house has appreciated or declined. You may find your house listed for sale too long and people will wonder if hidden problems exist or if they can lowball you if your house isn't priced just right. If you are in Lynnwood or Snohomish County Jess and Julie Lyda from Re/Max demonstrate a remarkable market knowledge and depth and I thank them for allowing me to use their graphics. Their blog is a good resource and you can check it out here.

Today I’d like to talk to you about a great online tool for finding Real Estate agents and Loan Officers, Zillow Mortgage Marketplace. Zillow is a free to use website that allows you to share the details of the property or loan you want with hundreds of real estate agents and loan officers. They then respond to your claim with their best offer, thus allowing you to quickly and easily browse a list of offers in order to select the best one suited for your needs. Today I’ll break down the details of finding a good quote on home refinances using Zillow, and I’ll show you resources that can tell you rather or not you should act quickly or be patient with your loan.

So you’ve submitted your loan quote requests to Zillow Mortgage Marketplace and now have a list of quote offers in front of you. One of the most important details is how much is your loan going to cost. Typical refinances for the Lynnwood, Bothell, Edmonds area are roughly $4,000 for a “par rate”. Par rate is 0.125% to .25% above the yield Fannie Mae sets for loans, which can be found here:

https://www.efanniemae.com/syndicated/documents/mbs/apeprices/archives/cur30.html

Rate quotes you receive from Zillow are based on the rate the lender gets from Fannie Mae. So remember to check the date on your quotes against the rate on the day the quote was put together! If rates are moving rapidly a local Lynnwood lender like myself can sit down with you to make sure no problems will arise, take the application, and wait until a good time to lock.

To get the final cost of the loan we calculate how long it will take to recover the closing costs using this formula:

Yrs to recover costs = Costs / Savings/yr = $4000 / (Current Balance * Current Rate - (Current Balance + 4000) * New Rate )

You were probably under the assumption there would be no math! So let me clarify with an example. For a $200,000 loan at 6% converted to $204,000 at %5 will take around 2 years to break even. If the recovery time is 1-4, then it’s a good deal, as the average person owns the property for 7 years.

The next detail to examine is if rates are rising or falling. When rising, you need to act quickly to obtain a lock on the Zillow quote the lender offered. A good resource to find 30 year yields is Bloomberg’s web site at:

http://www.bloomberg.com/markets/rates/index.html

If the yield is rising and it’s worthwhile in terms of recovery time to go ahead with the refinance, act quickly in order to get a lock as soon as you can before it goes up any more. If rates are falling and the recovery time is favorable, you have the luxury of time allowing you to shopping around for the best lender for your situation. The loan officer you pick can then wait with your application and documents on file until the perfect time to lock!

I hope I was able to give you insight on when to jump in and get the ball rolling on your loan rather than waiting and letting an opportunity pass you by. If there is any uncertainty in your application or questions you have, it’s a good idea to use a local lender so that you are able to meet face to face and resolve the problem and keep the lock you just spent so much time obtaining. I am two miles south of Lynwood which helps me provide in person service and problem solving to Lynnwood, Bothell, Bellevue, Seattle, and the 405 and I5 corridors. If you have any questions or concerns I’d be happy to help you, my contact information is on the right hand side of the page. Good luck with your loan!

We staged a "model" home in a newer development on March 25. A week later we received a call from the builder that the staged home had sold and they would like the staging moved across the street to another house for sale in the development. Last week we removed the staging because all 4 homes in the development had sold!

Staging helped sell a lifestyle to home buyers. These homes were in great condition, well priced and ready to show & sell. Congratulations to the new homeowners!

Staging by SISTERS Interior Redesign, Edmonds, WA, 425.776.7890, sisters@sistersredesign.com

Give your listing the advantage of professional real estate staging. Contact us today for a complimentary quote. We look forward to working with you!

I have enjoyed working in mortgage origination for the last eight years along the I5 and 405 corridors.

On May 1^st, 2009 a new appraisal guidelines known as Home Valuation Code of Conduct or HVCC were enforced and I would like to share with you what changes to expect when applying for a home loan now.

The first major change of HVCC is that anyone involved with loan origination or production cannot order appraisals. This means that pricing breaks and speedy service can no longer be guaranteed. Expect appraisals to take around fourteen days from ordering to completion. Because Lynwood is the crossroads for Highway 99, I5, and 405 expect a wide range of different appraisers with different turn times to be selected to do appraisals.

The second major change is that the borrower or mortgage broker may no longer pay the appraiser. Instead, the borrower has to pay a third party or the lender who then forwards the payment to the appraisal company. Loan originators will now be asking which credit card you would like to place the appraisal on.

The third major change is that ten percent or a sizeable sample size of all appraisals must be "quality control tested." This change will result in delays of days to up to a week for up to 10% of all loans, determined randomly. Quality control testing will significantly impact unique or different properties often found in Lynnwood. We have far more custom built houses here and it is not uncommon for "quality control testing" to ask for closer comparables to custom houses then what exists on the marketplace.