Julia St. Marie, ABR, RRG, RSPS

The importance of a Pre-Approval....

If you are looking to buy a home within the next few months, then I highly recommend that you get Pre-Approved. Many buyers apply for a loan and receive approval from a lender BEFORE searching for a home.

Why is pre-approval important at the beginning of the home-buying process?

Some buyers think that when purchasing a property it should go within this two-step order:

1. Find the right house
2. Negotiate the transaction while figuring out their financing to make the purchase

It makes sense to know your deal, before you make your deal.

FIRST STEP: Get Pre-Approved

1. The worst time for a buyer compete the loan process is after deciding on the property that they want to purchase. During this time, buyers are overwhelmed and may make haste to their complete their financing rather than making the best possible decisions for themselves. The buyer may put themselves in a position whereas there is no time to compare and shop around for their best possible interest rates, lender fees, and options for their mortgage financing.

What is the difference between a Pre-Qualification and a Pre-Approval?

Pre-qualified buyers are those whose lenders have determined how much they can borrow based only on information the buyer has provided to the lender and their credit report. Nothing has been verified to determine the buyer's true ability to obtain the loan. The pre-qualification is a brief quick look at the borrower's finances without any supporting documents from the borrower.

A Pre-Approval is a legitimate, bona fide, fully documented, comprehensive, no buyer surprises result; whereas the lender has already given the borrower the loan. The loan is only contingent on the property appraising for the sales price.

1. Pre-approval will determine your price range and narrow your search parameters. Based on your down payment and that pre-approved mortgage amount, you will know how much you can afford before you even start looking for a house.

2. Pre-approval can cut days or even weeks off the closing, because the lender has already conducted its credit analysis and approved you for a mortgage. Buyer is awarded with closing on time with no per diem late pay charges.

3. Pre-approval strengthens your offer and negotiating position. Stronger buyer position for current bidding wars for discounted REOs: A seller will often choose to accept an offer from a buyer who is pre-approved for a mortgage over one whose financial picture is still in question.

4. Pre-approval can better compete with all cash buyers.

For the buyer to be poised well, buyer to obtain A Fully Documented Pre-Approval from a direct lender/Nationally recognized bank. (Example: Wells Fargo, Bank of America)

For the buyer to be poised the BEST, buyer to obtain a Fully Documented Underwritten Approval from a direct lender/Nationally recognized bank. (Example: Wells Fargo, Bank of America)

I work closely with some reliable and reputable lenders that I will be happy to refer to you. Please feel free to contact me at anytime.....thanks and have a great day!

Julia St. Marie, RRG, ABR, RSPS

Realty ONE Group

702-355-HO-M-E (4663)

LVRealEstateLady@yahoo.com

Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan
Revised February 20, 2009

President Obama‘s plan to help stabilize the housing market and keep millions of borrowers in their homes...

The Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan includes two initiatives to help struggling homeowners. One is a refinancing program for homeowners with less than 20% equity in their homes, or who owe more than their home is worth. The second program attempts to lower monthly payments for homeowners
at risk of losing their home. In addition, the plan includes a third initiative to support low mortgage rates by strengthening confidence in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Many of the plan's details are still being worked out and will not be announced until March 4, here is an overview of the plan's main components.

1. Refinancing Initiative:
Under current rules, those families who own less than 20% equity in their homes have a difficult time refinancing and taking advantage of the historically low interest rates. Therefore, the refinancing initiative in the new plan provides refinancing help for homeowners with less than 20% equity in their homes or who owe more than their home is worth. This initiative is open to homeowners who have conforming loans which are guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and who owe up to 5% more than their home is worth.

According to the plan, "credit-worthy" or "responsible" homeowners can refinance their mortgage into a 30- or 15-year, fixed-rate loan based on current market rates. The refinanced loan, however, cannot include prepayment penalties or balloon payments. For many families, this low-cost refinancing may help reduce their mortgage payments by up to thousands of dollars per year.

As with the rest of the plan, details about this initiative will be released at a future date-including what, if any, credit score requirements will be included.

2.Stability Initiative:
This initiative aims at providing help to individual families as well as entire neighborhoods by helping reduce foreclosures and stabilize home prices. It is intended to help homeowners who are struggling to afford their mortgage payments, but cannot sell their homes because prices have fallen significantly.

The goal of this initiative is simple: "reduce the amount homeowners owe per month to sustainable levels." To accomplish this, lenders are encouraged to lower homeowners' payments to 31 percent of their income by lowering their interest rate to as low as 2% or by extending the terms of the loan. In addition, lenders can also lower the principal owed by the borrower, with Treasury sharing in the costs.

Homeowners who are current on their mortgages but are struggling can still apply for this program. As such, this is one of the few programs designed to help homeowners who may face delinquency soon, but are current at the moment.

Since the focus of this initiative is on helping families and neighborhoods, investment properties do not qualify. This initiative also includes a number of additional elements and incentives that benefit homeowners and lenders alike, including:

Incentives to Help Borrowers Stay Current: To provide an extra incentive for borrowers to keep paying on time, the initiative will provide a monthly balance reduction payment that goes straight towards reducing the principal balance of the mortgage loan. As long as a borrower stays current on his or her loan, he or she can get up to $1,000 each year for five years.

Reaching Borrowers Early: To keep lenders focused on reaching borrowers who are trying their best to stay current on their mortgages, an incentive payment of $500 will be paid to servicers, and an incentive payment of $1,500 will be paid to mortgage holders, if they modify at-risk loans before the borrower falls behind.

3.Supporting Low Mortgage Rates Incentive:
As part of the Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan, the Treasury Department is increasing its funding commitment to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to ensure the strength and security of the mortgage market and to help maintain mortgage affordability. This portion of the plan will use using funds already authorized in 2008 by Congress for this purpose.

The increased funding will enable Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to carry out ambitious efforts to ensure mortgage affordability for responsible homeowners, and provide forward-looking confidence in the mortgage market.

The government plans to unveil the final details of the plan on March 4, 2009. Below please find a link with the common Questions and Answers produced by the government at:
www.treas.gov/initiatives/eesa/homeowner-affordability-plan/ConsumerQA.pdf

Just would like to share some good news/information from our friends at First American Exchange regarding 1031 exchange....

CASH BACK AT COE-----Legal or Illegal

Simply stated--"LEGAL" -- "YES".....Seller may give cash back to buyer at successful close of escrow to buyer (principal). The only contingency is:

CASH BACK TO BE DISCLOSED TO UNDERWRITER

Ok so this is the way a smart and savey investor/buyer will know if it has been disclosed to the underwriter......

LOOK AT THE HUD STATEMENT----Done easy!!!!

Don't miss out on CASH BACK OPPORTUNITIES that are here NOW because of the false information that has been influencing you from the unknowledgeable.

Thanks and have a great day! Julia St. Marie at Liberty Realty-Las Vegas :)

ps....Just Simple Logic.....Why would a licensed Realtor jeopardise his/her license so that a buyer/client/investor could get cash back?

Hello All......

I just read an article in Entrepreneur.com dated Thursday, January 24, 2008, written by Danielle Babb about the Best and Worst Places to buy a House. This article was founded on the Yahoo Finance Home Page!

Well guess what! The article states that LAS VEGAS is one (total four listed) of the BEST PLACES TO BUY A HOUSE.

Yes, the most exciting city on this planet is also one of the best places to buy a house because the JOB MARKET VERY STRONG. There is also an increased population, partly driven by RETIREES LOOKING FOR AFFORDABLE SUNBELT STATES to move to.

Conclusion: If you need a great job opportunity (we are still booming) or just a place to retire in style....Las Vegas is a best place to buy a house and this is the best time to buy as now the pricing is RIGHT NOW.

Have a great day! Julia :)

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