Rhode Island Real Estate, Buyers Agents, Paul Silver

I thought I had heard it all, but it seems I have not: we are trying to show a house to a buyer, and in the comments the MLS listing indicates that unless the buyer agrees to allow the seller to live in the house for 3 months after closing, they wont be allowed to see the house. Now you all may correct me if I am wrong, but this means that the buyer would have to go with investment property lending, as they would not be able to call the house "owner Occupied" when applying for the loan. Most likely the lender would not grant the buyer this concession. Also, because of this, the buyer would forgo the $8K tax credit, if they are first time buyers. After all, it would not be an owner occupied house.

Note that this house is listed at market value, without a discount for the rent!

Of course, we have seen deals go through that allowed the seller to stay, at a low rent, until such time as they found a place to move to, say, a month after closing. But again, all of the above applies, and at least in those cases the seller was willing to pay rent.

This seller wants to live rent free for three months AFTER Closing... not 3 months from today, but so much after the closing, rent free.

Other than a very generous investor, who is paying cash for the house, the house becomes essentially unsellable with these conditions.

Question: Have you seen such conditions on a sale? Should this house be permitted into MLS, since the conditions are prohibitive? What would you say to such a condition? Would you list such a house? Would you advise a buyer to take the deal?

Economists: Expand the Housing Tax Credit

Now we are seeing the banking industry, and academic economists, supporting an extension and expansion of the home buyer tax credit: I got this from the NY Times, and I have to say I agree whole heartedly... John Maynard Keynes used to call it priming the pump, but we have seen this called "socailism" by those obviously unfamiliar with what Socialism actually is...

I quote:

More than 40 percent of all home buyers in 2009 will qualify for the federal tax credit, costing the government about $15 billion, twice the original estimate, but most housing experts applaud the policy and favor expanding it.

Now the decision is up to Congress.

Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s Economy.com, believes that the credit should be expanded to all homebuyers, even investors, through summer of 2010. “The risks of not doing something like this are too great,” he said. “I don’t think the coast is clear.”

James Glassman of JPMorgan Chase also favors expanding the credit but continuing to limit it to first-time buyers.

Industry members who are lobbying for the extension are optimistic and say they believe an extension will be approved in some form. “There will be a lot of water under the bridge, a lot of compromise, between now” and a final bill, said Richard A. Smith, chairman of the Business Roundtable’s Housing Working Group.

End Quote
Source: The New York Times, David Streitfeld (09/15/2009)

Given this, and the fact that the economy is still losing jobs at alarming rates, we should stimulate in many ways, and this is a good one, impacting many industries.

WASHINGTON – Sept. 10, 2009 – The Obama administration’s $50 billion mortgage relief program is finally picking up speed after a sluggish and disappointing start: Nearly early one in five eligible homeowners have been offered help so far.

The “Making Home Affordable” plan was launched with great fanfare in March. As of last month, lenders had sent out more than 571,000 offers to reduce borrowers’ monthly payments, the Treasury Department said Wednesday.

That’s 19 percent of the nearly 3 million U.S. homeowners eligible for a loan modification under the plan, up from 15 percent at the end of July.

“There are signs the plan is working,” said Michael Barr, assistant Treasury Secretary for financial institutions. “But we can do better.”

Of the modifications offered, about 360,000 borrowers, or 12 percent, have signed up for three-month trial modifications, which are supposed to be extended for five years if the homeowners make their payments on time.

To increase pressure on the industry, Waters and other lawmakers threatened to revive a failed proposal, opposed by banking lobbyists, to let bankruptcy judges rewrite the terms of a mortgage.

That change is necessary, consumer groups say, because getting a lender to do so voluntarily is still a time-consuming, bureaucratic nightmare. Many lenders are still scheduling foreclosure sales, and charging borrowers fees for participating in the Obama plan.

“The administration has got to put some teeth in this and really get some consequences for the lenders and servicers who are not cooperating,” said Bonnie Mathias, a board member of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN.

But mortgage executives say they are racing to implement the program, hiring thousands of workers to handle an unprecedented flood of calls.

“We fully understand the urgency,” Jack Shackett, Bank of America’s head of credit loss prevention, told lawmakers. “We understand that we have a long way to go under very challenging circumstances.”

Bank of America has doubled its number of trial modifications in two months to nearly 60,000. But it still lags its competitors, having enrolled about 7 percent of its 836,000 eligible loans, compared with 25 percent for JPMorgan Chase & Co.

The Treasury Department’s decision to publish those numbers has clearly provided a powerful inventive for many in the industry.

Lenders are “concerned about the report card showing them in a worse light than their peers,” said David Stevens, an assistant secretary at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. “Nobody wants to be a low performer on that score card.”

Industry executives also say they are planning to work with Obama administration officials on a possible extension of the program to unemployed homeowners. Also under consideration is finding a way to help borrowers with “pick-a-payment” or option ARM loans, which gave borrowers the ability to defer some of their interest payments and add them to the principal.

Treasury says 48 mortgage companies are now involved in the program, up from 38 in July. The companies have requested financial information from almost two-thirds of eligible borrowers and say they are on track to have 500,000 loan modifications in place by Nov. 1.

The program is voluntary, relying on subsidies to encourage mortgage companies to participate. Lenders must agree to reduce the loan payments to 38 percent of a borrower’s monthly pretax income. After that, the government and lender split the cost of bringing the payment down to 31 percent.

Borrowers can receive rates as low as 2 percent for five years.

Mandie Sullivan, lead agent and partner of Focus PRofessionals, Inc., has had a great year to date, and especially a great last couple of months, working exclusively with home buyers. She is one of the top producing buyer agents in Rhode Island, and we at the company want to offer up our congratulations, and our compliments for expert professionalism working with buyers this season. From First time buyers to investors, Mandie is closing deal after deal, with great benefit to her buyers.

Mandie also handles a number of listings, and a largish group of investors, but her focus is on buyer representation, and it is clear she is doing a bang up job of it.

We wouls also like to show our appreciation for Charlie Demty, who has made great inroads in his new region of Bristol County MA.

Thanks to both of you for doing what you do best, and doing even better than before.

Focus Professionals, Inc., a full service real estate solutions company, serves all of Rhode Island and Southeast Massachusetts, emphasis on buyers.

Important news for all first time homebuyers

Reblogged from Missy Caulk-Ann Arbor- Realtor(R)- Ann Arbor Real Estate, the Realtor with the latest information!

Via Missy Caulk-Ann Arbor- Realtor(R)- Ann Arbor Real Estate (Keller Williams-Ann Arbor):

HUD Secretary, Shaun Donovan announced yesterday that FHA Lenders are going to allowed to let First Time Homebuyers use the up to $8000.00 tax credit as a down-payment.

To quote Mr. Donovan, speaking at the Mid-year conference of NAR in Washington:

Secretary Donovan said that important changes, which the National Association of Realtors^® has been calling for, will help consumers purchase a home. “We all want to enable FHA consumers to access the home buyer tax credit funds when they close on their home loans so that the cash can be used as a downpayment,” Donovan said. According to Donovan, the FHA’s approved lenders will be permitted to “monetize” the tax credit through short-term bridge loans. This will allow eligible home buyers to access the funds immediately at the closing table.

It will be interesting to see what the rate is on the bridge loans, but regardless this is a great step in the right direction. I appreciate NAR spear-heading the effort for home-buyers.

Read more information on the Realtor.org site

Ann Arbor, Saline, Dexter, Chelsea, Ypsilanti, Milan buyers this is exciting news for you. This has been one of the most consumer asked question on my Ann Arbor Real Estate Blog.

Begin your homes for sale in Washtenaw County here.