Rosemary Brooks -Mother & Daughter (866)-750-8282

 For more information, visit www.makinghomeaffordable.gov.

You may qualify for a MORTGAGE REFINANCE if:

• You have a Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac mortgage loan on your primary residence, second home or investment property. Please contact Fannie Mae at 1-800-7FANNIE or Freddie Mac at 1-800-FREDDIE if you are unsure.
• You owe no more on your 1st mortgage than 105% of your home's current value. (Example: you owe $105,000 on a home with a current market value of $100,000.)
• You are current on your existing mortgage.
• You are interested in a new fixed or adjustable loan at current low rates.
• Note: Refinancing fees may apply.

If you meet all of the guidelines above, call 866-964-9754 to talk to a loan agent about refinancing your mortgage. 

Having difficulty making payments now? We have programs that may help.
You may be currently delinquent or falling behind on your loan. We understand and every day we partner with hundreds of homeowners to develop solutions that help keep families in their homes. If you are having difficulty making your mortgage payment, here's what you can do right now:

• Give us a call at 1-866-899-5308 to discuss your options.
• Call 1.800.CALL.FHA to find a HUD-certified housing counseling agency.
• Complete a financial analysis form and fax it to 1.866.709.4744.

 Looking to loan modify:  Got GMAC? You may qualify for a long modification if....

WEBSITE: http://www.motheranddaughterrealtyteam.com

• Want to purchase a REO property? Want to know what properties I have to sell?
• Need information on the foreclosure process? Ask me for a FREE Pre-Foreclosure Guide 
• For a FREE MARKET EVALUATION of your home  
• Need a Short Sale Specialist?   

Check out: Real Estate Terms/Definitions.  And take a look at Mother and Daughter Blog and D'Adrea's Mother and Daughter Blog  - for other tips for Sellers and Buyers. I work with my daughter as the Mother and Daughter Real Estate Team at Family Realty Group and we also focus in Short Sales and the Pre-Foreclosure process and REOs/Bank Owned Properties.  Our consultations are free.  Our aggressive marketing plan includes on-line listing advertising.  If you are thinking of selling or buying a home in Northern California's Central Valley (San Joaquin County CA - includes Stockton, Manteca, Tracy, Lathrop) plus Stanislaus County CA - includes Modesto, Salida, Riverbank) & the East Bay (Alameda County CA - includes Hayward, Fremont, Newark, Union City & Oakland) and surrounding areas give us a call.  If you would like a FREE Home Seller or Home Buyer Handbook, please call us at 866-750-8282 or email at US.

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Thanks to the President's making homes affordable plan - helping homeowners is a Top priority to the proposed changes. GMAC has announced that they are cooperating with this plan is trying to offer plans that will help homeowners stay in their homes.  You can get more information by visiting the website:  www.financialstability.gov

Here are some of the guidelines to this plan:   You may qualify for a LOAN MODIFICATION if:

• You own and occupy your home as your primary residence.
• You are either current, at risk of imminent default, or behind in your mortgage payments, or are in foreclosure or bankruptcy.
• The unpaid principal balance of the first mortgage on your primary residence is $729,750 or less (loan limits are higher on owner-occupied multi-unit properties).
• You have verifiable source(s) of income to put towards a mortgage payment each month, even if that income has recently been reduced.
• You can provide copies of your most recent tax returns and will sign an affidavit of financial hardship.
• You have not previously modified your mortgage under the MHA program.
• Note: Mortgages on second homes, vacant homes and investment properties are not eligible for modification under this program.

GMAC provides a link  If you meet the guidelines above, please go to the Download Financial Analysis Form link, complete the financial analysis form and return it to us as directed on the form. If you have questions about the form, please call 1-866-899-5308.

I am providing this information to those that have GMAC loans.  I have received several calls asking for information on GMAC.  GMAC has the reputation of not reaching out to help the homeowner, but recently they joined the support of the President's plan for making homes more affordable.  This is top priority according to GMAC.

Requests Loan modifications can be done by the homeowner for free and there are also some free services out there for the homeowners.  Homeowners can also choose to pay someone but should make sure that the agent or loan officer is licensed and is going through the DRE (California Department of Real Estate Department - if in California) to be assured you are properly respresented in this matter.  Not every agent is qualified or OK'd by DRE to do the loan modification paperwork for you.

WEBSITE: http://www.motheranddaughterrealtyteam.com

• Need a Short Sale Specialist?  
• Want to purchase a REO property? Want to know what properties I have to sell?
• Need information on the foreclosure process? Ask me for a FREE Pre-Foreclosure Guide 
• For a FREE MARKET EVALUATION of your home   

Check out: Real Estate Terms/Definitions.  And take a look at Mother and Daughter Blog and D'Adrea's Mother and Daughter Blog  - for other tips for Sellers and Buyers. I work with my daughter as the Mother and Daughter Real Estate Team at Family Realty Group and we also focus in Short Sales and the Pre-Foreclosure process and REOs/Bank Owned Properties.  Our consultations are free.  Our aggressive marketing plan includes on-line listing advertising.  If you are thinking of selling or buying a home in Northern California's Central Valley (San Joaquin County CA - includes Stockton, Manteca, Tracy, Lathrop) plus Stanislaus County CA - includes Modesto, Salida, Riverbank) & the East Bay (Alameda County CA - includes Hayward, Fremont, Newark, Union City & Oakland) and surrounding areas give us a call.  If you would like a FREE Home Seller or Home Buyer Handbook, please call us at 866-750-8282 or email at US.

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The property is good looking from the outside, not too bad on the inside! But the house two door down just sold for over $30,000 less that what your listing is listed for.  The question that should be going through both the seller and listing agent is how in the world do we expect to sell this property that is listed too high to sell?

Since the majority of listings are either Foreclosure/REOs or Short Sales: Lets address them. 

Short Sales:  One the other main problems with getting the property priced right is the owner and their attachment to the property.  What they paid and having a problem with what the agent is saying it is now worth on the market. The owner is still remembering how much they paid for the property, what they have put into the property and how much they love the property.

The main point to work out first is that the owner cannot afford the property based on that price that they paid.  The owner has either ran into a major hardship of personal nature or they have lost their income or most of it.  So therefore they cannot afford the property.  Once the owner get grip of that fact, the letting go becomes easier.  They usually will then let the agent do what they should do best and that is price properties where the market is and then move forward with their marketing of the property to get it sold.

Foreclosures:  The bank is a different beast.  They have the data to know what the property is worth, but they like to play the numbers game.  They will get a BPO and an Appraisal and still end pricing the property at least $10,000 higher than what either report came out to.  This I call trying to get a little bit more, a little bit more.  Sometimes it works, sometimes the property will sit on the market until the price is reduced.

So at the end of the day, the property is only worth as much as a buyer is willing to pay for it!

WEBSITE: http://www.motheranddaughterrealtyteam.com

• Want to purchase a REO property? Want to know what properties I have to sell?
• Need information on the foreclosure process? Ask me for a FREE Pre-Foreclosure Guide 
• For a FREE MARKET EVALUATION of your home  
• Need a Short Sale Specialist?   

Check out: Real Estate Terms/Definitions.  And take a look at Mother and Daughter Blog and D'Adrea's Mother and Daughter Blog  - for other tips for Sellers and Buyers. I work with my daughter as the Mother and Daughter Real Estate Team at Family Realty Group and we also focus in Short Sales and the Pre-Foreclosure process and REOs/Bank Owned Properties.  Our consultations are free.  Our aggressive marketing plan includes on-line listing advertising.  If you are thinking of selling or buying a home in Northern California's Central Valley (San Joaquin County CA - includes Stockton, Manteca, Tracy, Lathrop) plus Stanislaus County CA - includes Modesto, Salida, Riverbank) & the East Bay (Alameda County CA - includes Hayward, Fremont, Newark, Union City & Oakland) and surrounding areas give us a call.  If you would like a FREE Home Seller or Home Buyer Handbook, please call us at 866-750-8282 or email at US.

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Is it smart to aim your goals high in this market?  Well some would say you always aim high! 

For the sake of this post, lets be real.  Aiming too high, can hurt your business! We're talking about real estate, in this market and with foreclosures being the leader in properties sold (45-50% sold properties are foreclosed homes) probably even higher.  Since housing is decreased, employment is in the decline, foreclosures are up.... we need to point our aim at the right target to make our goals. 

So given that the properties are foreclosed homes, people lost their homes due to hardships and the main hardship is lost of wages (not discounting other major mishaps).  So if people are losing money (income), it stands to reason that the property values are going to go down or we are going to end up with the overload on the MLS, agents out of work, no house buying and rock bottom depression - right? 

So lets take a look at what's selling on the MLS.  We go right to the SOLD HISTORY.  After all, the sold properties are really what is driving what the listed  properties are listing for  (so its driving the market) - that plus the competition to get your property noticed.... 

Agents don't have a choice, we need to follow the demand, so lets see where the demand is in just one of Stockton, CA's areas.  I chose for this post, zip code 95212.  This is a good area of Stockton.  Lots of foreclosures in this area, one of the higher priced areas and one of the most desired areas - that is reasonably priced.  OK foreclosure buyers where are you? Like Stockton, most cities are broken into more than one zip code.  Stockton has several.  But for the sake of this information I used 95212 zip code and only 424 properties from April 7 to date.

Side note: there are 1940 total listings in this area that were sold over the last MONTH (4-7-09 to date).  

This is a chart average, median, high sold prices for properties with (4 bedrooms/ 3 bath) zip code: 95212      Area 20705. # of listings 424 

This shows days on market vs number of sold listings (4bed/ 3 bath in 95212 zip code from April 4 to date):

 The number of solds are even higher in the lower priced properties.  Agents are studying the MLS all over to find out where the demand is in their areas.  That is the first step to setting your aim and goals. 

OK foreclosure buyers where are you?  

WEBSITE: http://www.motheranddaughterrealtyteam.com

• Want to purchase a REO property? Want to know what properties I have to sell?
• Need information on the foreclosure process? Ask me for a FREE Pre-Foreclosure Guide 
• For a FREE MARKET EVALUATION of your home  
• Need a Short Sale Specialist?   

Check out: Real Estate Terms/Definitions.  And take a look at Mother and Daughter Blog and D'Adrea's Mother and Daughter Blog  - for other tips for Sellers and Buyers. I work with my daughter as the Mother and Daughter Real Estate Team at Family Realty Group and we also focus in Short Sales and the Pre-Foreclosure process and REOs/Bank Owned Properties.  Our consultations are free.  Our aggressive marketing plan includes on-line listing advertising.  If you are thinking of selling or buying a home in Northern California's Central Valley (San Joaquin County CA - includes Stockton, Manteca, Tracy, Lathrop) plus Stanislaus County CA - includes Modesto, Salida, Riverbank) & the East Bay (Alameda County CA - includes Hayward, Fremont, Newark, Union City & Oakland) and surrounding areas give us a call.  If you would like a FREE Home Seller or Home Buyer Handbook, please call us at 866-750-8282 or email at US.

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There is a process required for purchasing a property and tips that will help you make it an easy way to buy!

This is Post Five:

Have a team to help you - Your Realtor, Mortgage person, Home Inspector, Termite Inspector and other contractors should all be on your team. If you find a fixer upper do you have a contractor that can help you repair the home in an affordable fashion you'll be more confident when buying. If you don't have these people on your team you will be hesitant and miss out.

Having a good team is only half the battle, make sure you are a good listener and can take advice!

This ends my series on tips to help you in Getting a good deal on a property.

For more information... Check out our Website and our Blog... Website: http://www.motheranddaughterrealtyteam.com - Blog: http://activerain.com/brooksrm2042

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