John Michelena

I just completed the Georgia Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) Informational Class recently and as I was listening to the instructor and observing this room filled with licensed real estate brokers and agents, this thought crossed my mind "If this room filled with licensed professionals who deal in real estate daily are not aware of all of these grant programs, then how in the world does a lay person have any chance to find out the details?" and "If this room filled with licensed real estate brokers and agents is having a hard time understanding all of the qualifications and how the programs work, then how in the world is the average Joe (or Jane - just to be politically correct) going to understand this?"

Then that's when it hit me! This is just like Mission Impossible! I couldn't help but think about the old "Mission Impossible" TV Series. Not the movie with the young and handsome Tom Cruise, but the one with the old, gray-haired Peter Graves. At the beginning of each episode, Peter Graves (or Jim Phelps was the character's name) would receive a tape, a hidden recording, from his superiors in the most inconspicuous places. In this recording he would receive his instructions along with some pictures regarding the mission. I can still remember the classic phrase always contained in the tape (I will have to paraphrase): "Proceed as per our instructions and in the event you or any member of your team should be caught or killed, then the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions.... Your mission, should you decide to accept it is this........") and then after the IMPOSSIBLE MISSION was given, then the voice on the other end of the tape would say"Good luck, Jim!" and the tape would self-destruct. All of their missions were "nearly impossible", but they prevailed and succeeded every time!

Realtor's Mission Impossible: To decipher, learn, understand and be able to communicate to the Buyers and Sellers about all of these governmental programs available today. A job that is nearly impossible. These are great programs, but they are very complicated to lay persons. Although not easy to understand, the government has made them available and hopefully the use of these programs will help absorb a significant amount of our inventory. Between the current Foreclosure prevention, loan refinance and loan modification programs currently available and the use of these new grants available, I'm hopeful that we can help reduce the number of foreclosures, keep homeowners in their homes, reduce the amount of foreclosures entering the market and reduce the over- supply of inventory. Realtors, learn these programs and any new ones that come out, host a homebuyers seminar, host a foreclosure prevention seminar, use public libraries (most of them will be free for public education), etc. GET THE WORD OUT!

Some of these programs available in Georgia are:

The Georgia Dream NSP Purchase Discount Program

HUD Homes

First Time Homebuyer's Affordable Housing Program (through Federal Home Loan Bank)

NACA

Gwinnett County Georgia's HomeStretch Program

In Atlanta: Home Atlanta Downpayment Assistance Program, Opportunity Downpayment Assistance Program, Beltline Affordable Housing Trust Fund, Atlanta Affordable Homeownership Program and Vine City/English Ave Trust Fund Program

Dekalb County, Georgia's First-Time Homebuyer Downpayment Assistance Program

FHA 203K Rehabilitation Loans

And don't forget to mention the $8,000 Federal Tax Credit for First-Time Homebuyers and the $1,800 Georgia Tax Credit !!!

Realtors, your mission is this:

"Proceed to learn as much as you possibly can so that you can educate and help the public and in the event you or any member of your office should get stuck or not understand, then YOU will assist them. This is your mission, should you decide to accept it! Good luck, Realtors!"

We can do this!!!

John Michelena

www.AmerivestRealtyOfAtlanta.com

This article was created just for the love of humor and you would think that Sellers with any common sense would never allow any of these things to happen, but these are actual true stories! Please share your funny stories too!

1) Don’t leave pet waste uncollected. Pick it up and put it in the OUTSIDE trash can or bury it or toss it as far away from the house as possible! You get the point, good smells are great for selling a home and bad smells are detriments in trying to sell a home.
TRUE STORY: I was showing a home to a client. We were in the back yard and yes, I stepped in it. It got all over my shoe. It was winter and the home was winterized and the outside water faucets were cut off. I’m embarrassed to say that I had to take off my shoe, go back inside the house and then rinse my shoe off in the kitchen sink.

2) Don’t leave your underwear or bras out for buyers to see. Come on. I know some people aren’t shy and see nothing wrong with this, but do you really want the buyer to remember your home or the bra size?
TRUE STORY: I was showing a home to a client. They walked into the master bedroom and there hanging on the door knob handle of the master bath door was the lady’s bra (at least I hope she was a lady – you never know nowadays). I still don’t remember anything about the master bedroom or bath except the hanging bra.

3) Don’t greet the selling agent and his clients at the door eating lasagna with no shirt on when they were not expecting anyone to be home. This one needs no explanation and yes, it really happened to me and it is a TRUE STORY.

4) If your female dog is in heat, don’t leave her in the back yard with your male dog when buyers are previewing your home. TRUE STORY: I was showing a home to a client (same home as above with the shirt-less lasagna eating Seller). When we looked out to the back yard, there was little Mr. Macho dog humping a much larger female dog (I’m sorry, I just couldn’t think of a more subtle way of describing this action). By the way, I intentionally left the breed name out to protect the innocent dogs of America. You know, canine profiling is running rampant nowadays.

5) Neighbors with a lawn chair hanging from one of their trees should be confronted. This is what you should do. With a very calm neighborly spirit, you should go talk to your neighbor and gently ask him to remove the lawn chair hanging by a rope from his tree so that potential buyers looking at your home won’t think about what a class-less neighbor he will be. And yes, this really happened to me when showing a home and it is a TRUE STORY.

PLEASE SHARE YOUR FUNNY STORIES WITH ME!

IMPORTANT UPDATE! Unfortunately, HUD has retracted this mortgagee letter. For the moment, the $8,000 Federal tax credit for use as a down payment via a bridge loan/cash advance is not available. Talk is that they are working on a 100% loan with a minum credit score of at least 620. Be on the look out for HUD to come out with something early next year!

Earlier this year we received a gift from the United States Government through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 - an $8,000 Federal Tax Credit to First Time Homebuyers who closed on a home this year! Details of the Tax Credit can be found in the IRS website: http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=204671,00.html?

But First Time Homebuyers still needed to have the necessary down payment in order to close on the home in order to apply for the tax credit after closing. Problem: Tax Credit was great, but didn't help if you didn't have a down payment. On May 11, 2009, HUD issued MORTGAGEE LETTER 2009-15 and the game has changed!

Buyer's can now use their $8,000 tax credit for the minimum 3.5% down payment on an FHA loan for their new home. IT's a CASH ADVANCE for your down payment! First time homebuyers (or Homebuyers who have not owned a home in the last three years) can amend or file their 2008 tax return to get the $8,000 UPFRONT for closing. If the sales price is $228,000 or less and the seller is paying closing costs and pre-paid expenses, the buyer can buy a home with essentially no money out of pocket at closing. A Sales price above $228,000 will still require the First time homebuyer to come up with some down payment.

Something else I noticed on this on this Mortgagee Letter: Owner-occupants MUST purchase a principal residence and CLOSE on the mortgage before December 1, 2009.

We lost one month of time to close on the home (use to be December 31, 2009).

If you want a copy of this Mortgagee Letter sent out by the HUD (Housing and Urban Development), then email me at JohnM@AmerivestRealty.com and I will send you a PDF of it.

If you are a first time homebuyer looking for a home Atlanta, GA, then you can search here for your new dream home: http://www.amerivestrealtyofatlanta.com/

Fantastic news out of Washington, D.C.! It was just a matter of time before we started to see some positive news and the fact that the pending home sales index has increased again for the 2^nd straight month is a hopeful indication of this. The Pending Home Sales Index is a leading indicator for the housing sector, based on pending sales of existing homes.

I keep telling my leads and clients the same thing - there has never been a better time to buy! Below market values, extremely low mortgage rates and an $8,000 federal tax credit for 1^st time homebuyers from Uncle Sam to boot! We will need several months of sustained growth in order to stabilize this market, but for right now, I'm ecstatic that we've had 2 straight months of growth.

Go to this link to get the full scoop: http://www.realtor.org/press_room/news_releases/2009/05/march_phsi