I wanted to start this week off with some nice positive news! I have been slam busy lately and it's because in the last 2 weeks, I have put 3 families into their new homes!
The Masons are enjoying their new West Wichita home - a classic 1950's ranch with 3 beds, remodeled kitchen and bath, fenced corner lot, 1 car garage, and a basement! They are looking forward to starting their new life here and starting their family - which I hear may already be in the works!! Congrats Masons!!
The McLellans just purchased their first home - a 1990 built 2 car ranch with finished basement in Smithmoor addition! They got a swell deal on a short sale and with just a weekend worth of work, they'll polish up that diamond and make it shine! I can't wait to see the finished home!! Congrats McLellans!!
The Andersons just purchased their first home in Goddard, KS, a suburb of Wichita! They bought an estate fixer-upper and have many long weekends ahead of them! But the price was sweet on the 3 bed 2 bath ranch with detached workshop on 1/4 acre corner lot! Their beautiful little girls are going to have a blast growing up in that home and the sellers are so happy that a new family will be raised there!
Are you ready to join the Andersons, McLellans, and Masons in purchasing your first home! Ready for a ribbon on YOUR door? Text, call, or Email today to find out how you can make your move into a Red Ribbon Home!
Visit www.myfirstwichitahome.com for more info and homes!
Sheree Wilkerson sheree@ksgreathomes.com 316.461.0575
However, I am happy to report that Sedgwick County has reduced it's mill levy by 1 mill for 2009! W
here most were speculating that there'd be an increase to help with the school bond issue, instead we get a reduction!
Really, 1 mill isn't a lot to you. On a $100,000 home, it could roughly be about $11.50 saved on your taxes. But hey, that's a couple of gallons of gas, for now!
The neat thing about this is that they cannot raise the mill levy without giving public notice and hearings. So we could enjoy a good bit of time with some property tax relief.
Thank a commissioner today and enjoy your tax savings!
Allegiant GMAC Realty text/call 316-461-0575 sheree@ksgreathomes.com
Everyone's heard the horror stories - Short Sales are iffy, 50% get denied, etc. And yes, they are iffy. But when you can make them work, it's the best thing for everyone.
The sellers don't get foreclosed on. The buyers get a bit of a deal. The one thing you absolutely have to have if you are considering selling or buying a short sale - patience, lots of it. They are not fast. In fact, they are notoriously long. Dont' think weeks, think months.
Some recent examples:
1. Buyers come into town to find a great fixer upper to get ready for the Fall for their kids to move here to go to college. We find a great house with lots of room and a great price though it needs a ton of work. We make an offer on the short sale. It's late February. Months go by as the file is processed. It's June now - the bank tells us they promise they will have it reviewed and approved by the end of June. 3 times they promise us this. We schedule our appraisal and inspection, and to be safe, a closing for mid-July. 2 weeks before our closing date they decide to do yet another appraisal (the 3rd so far) to double/triple check the value. On our closing date - they claim they still haven't even gotten the appraisal turned in and can't review it and can't close. So we don't close. The approval is finally in and we are set to close on August 1st. 5 months later! Due to the length of time, the sellers credit is still ruined but at least not foreclosed.
2. Seller refi'd her heart out and is upside down on a home built new in an old area. It'd be worth that in an area conforming to the style of her house, but not where it is. To make the effort, we list it high enough to avoid short, with a few shows but no nibbles. After discussing the options, the seller says we got to get it sold - short it is. So we price it for the market. Within 2 weeks, we have 3 offers. Packet is sent off. After only 3 weeks, the bank gets back to us with a counter-offer. We submit that and lose 2 of our buyers. The lowest bidder comes back way under where the previous top was. We submit and keep holding out. Within 1 week of the counter, we have 7 offers on the property. Within 3 days of submitting those to the bank, we had an approval letter!! We're scheduled to close on the top offer in the middle of August. From short sale pricing to approval - in less than 2 months! Seller's credit is saved and she can move on with her life!
The difference in these two scenarios - the lender for the seller. Scenario one involves getting an approval from Wells Fargo - as easy as getting Congress to agree on something. The second involves Citifinancial - the most pleasant and wonderful loss mitigation team ever.
Both buyers got a great deal on a house, both sellers avoided a foreclosure on their record!
Just remember - if you want a deal - the easiest route is foreclosed properties. Short sales can work - but you need patience and flexibility. I had a total of 10 offers on that 2nd scenario. That means that 9 buyers got told to go find another home.
Think you qualify to sell short? Interested in picking up a foreclosure special? Drop me an email and see what we can do for you! sheree@ksgreathomes.com
You've found your home! You're excited, overwhelmed, anxious and more! Sometimes common sense has left the room! But hold tight to a few key rules - or that home you loved might slip away by accident.
When you apply for your loan, the bank takes a picture of your finances. They don't want those to change before closing, because that's what they're loaning based on. So with that in mind, here's a few key No-No's or What Not to Do Before Closing!
FACT: This is a true story. One lady wanted to doll up for her closing, bought thousands in BLing Bling and then could not qualify for her home. The most frequent offense is the car purchase. Please delay this until after closing, rent a car for a month if yours is busted, but delay this purchase!
FACT: I have a couple who may lose a home due to using large portions of their reserves to purchase furniture for their new home, before closing.
I promise we're not trying to be mean! We're really looking out for you! What good is all that furniture going to be if you don't get the house because of it. I'm not asking you to put your life on hold forever, just long enough to get through escrow and make the home yours!
It's that time again!
The City of Wichita has announced that there's been an unexpected breakdown in the water treatment plant, leaving the city with only about half of its normal water flow!
The water we do have is just fine, safe to drink, but there's just not as much of it!
The city is asking residents on city water to please discontinue exterior uses of water for about a week! This would be things such as watering the lawn, washing the car, hosing down the house, etc. And if you can be conservative in your water usage inside, that'd help too!
If we are not conservative, there is a chance water could run dry for important features such as fire hydrants, and eventually even to our faucets!
If you use well water for any of these purposes, you are just fine to continue doing so!
But for the rest of us - Hold the Sprinklers!
Forget the doom and gloom!
The Wichita Eagle recently put out an article with the results of the PMI Mortgage Insurance Co. study regarding home sale prices in various areas. This study is done quarterly.
The point of the study was to show the chance of home prices declining in various market areas between now and the first quarter of 2010.
The results showed that homes in Wichita, KS have less than a 1% chance of declining in value between now and the first quarter or 2010!
Compared to Florida, where the chance of decline came in at 90%, our rate is spectacularly good news for all!
Buyers are still getting good prices, with the idea that their home will not lose value. Sellers are still getting reasonable prices on their homes and have not lost a lot of value.
The market is regional and this study really shows that!
So when you hear all the hype and worry about your Wichita home, just remember that it's all local! Not just city, but even local to neighborhoods and individual homes! Every situation is different.
To find out what your home may sell for, or to snag up a great home at a good price in a stable city, get in touch and let's talk!
"For the protection of our customers, we will no longer be dealing directly with real estate agents"
Try it - call Loan Resolutions - 1-877-596-8580 and listen to the message.
I found this out as Ocwen sent me the following information:
"only considers short sales on loans that are ninety (90) days or greater past due and as the (myclientsname) loan is current; unfortunately Ocwen is not able to process a short sale. "
This after a month of giving me the run around and sending me paperwork to fill out and requesting I do an exhaustive CMA, now they tell me that they won't even think about it until the folks are 3 months late? They didn't make this June payment, so there's one.
I want to help my clients. I really do. They can't keep the house. Their mother was paying it and she has died, losing all her income. They are mortgaged up to their eyeballs and in debt for the rest of their lives. They loaned against their retirement accounts in order to keep things going and pay for their parents funerals. They have nothing. They are not bad people.
But apparently, Ocwen would rather see their credit go to crap, the house fall apart, and pay for a foreclosure than to bother help people who are responsible enough to try to avoid that.
Not only did they tell me that they will not consider a short until it's 90 days past due, but also that at 90 days past due they begin foreclosure proceedings and will not put those on hold while they consider a short, like other loan companies will do.
So they wait till their credit is absolutely shot, while the house continues to absolutely deteriorate (they couldn't afford to keep utilities on or maintain it, it sits vacant and has been broken into once already), then they will consider a short at the same time as they race to foreclose on it. At which point it wil be worth half its current value, which is already worth half of what is owed on it.
My clients have been advised that they will have to call Loan Resolutions themselves and try to work it out on their own.
That makes the 2nd short sale I've lost this week, but the first on my listing side of it. These are good people and I have to let them out on their own and watch them get foreclosed on because of this policy.
Why?
To end this on a good note, versus the other short sale rants, my short sale listing with Citimortgage is absolutely stunning! They respond, have some common sense, and I've spoken to a live person several times.
It's June! Kids are out of school and buyers are in a frenzy to find a home before school starts back! Is this the right time to sell? Here's the current Goddard stats!
Active - These homes are currently for sale in Goddard and would be your competition:
41 Homes - Priced from $89,000 to $550,000. The Average days on market is 178 days (nearly 6 months). Part of this is due to the large number of new construction homes in the marketplace.
Pending - 16 homes are under contract, waiting to close! These took an average of 138 days to get a contract. They were priced from $69,900 to $199,000.
Sold - These homes sold in the last 3 months.
43 homes - from $87,000 to $365,000 with an average of 35 days on the market. 21 of these were new homes build just for the buyer. When these are removed from the stats, the days on market go up to 60 (2 months).
What can you take away from this?
Look at the price ranges on each - the higher end homes are sitting on the market. Nothing is under contract over 199k, and nothing lately has sold over 365k. If you're above that range, you may have a long wait.
The largest factor to consider when selling in Goddard is the proximity and abundance of brand new homes available to buyers. That's the competition that is harder to compete with. But you can do it! After all, you've got a yard, and they don't, and you likely have lower or no specials!
The 2nd biggest factor is simply gas prices. Commuting rates are going down and bedroom communities are losing their attractiveness.
With the right plan in place though, you can get SOLD this summer!
To discuss your selling strategies, contact me!
Sheree and Kelly Wilkerson in Wichita, Goddard, Maize Kansas Residential Real Estate! We operate on the Golden Rule principle to make your dreams come true in home-ownership!
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