Mark Corbett

On Wednesday October 28, 2009 I took my continuing education for my Massachusetts license. Massachusetts requires all real estate sales and brokers to complete 12 hours of continuing education to renew their MA license. In Ma you must complete this requirement, which must be completed 24 months before your renewal date, which falls on your birthday. My birthday is Nov 10, so my time to complete this requirement was quickly approaching. I took the classes from the American Real Estate Academy www.area-school.com

The instructor was Peter Certo who’s been in the real estate industry in MA & RI and teaching for a number of years. He was very informative in teaching the courses. I like how he brought in real world examples in his teaching from being an active agent.

This was an all day event. The classes that were taught were “Residential Mortgage Loan Market and Credit Today”, “Foreclosures”, “Condominiums, Cooperatives and Timeshares”, “Section 1031 Like-Kind Exchanges”, Leisure Homes, Second Homes & Age Restricted Housing”, and “National Economic Trends and the Real Estate Professional”

I enjoyed the classes from the American Real Estate Academy and when I need to renew my license again, I will surely return to their school.

Have a Safe and Enjoyable Halloween, Don't eat too much candy.

This photo was taken for the Halloween Party I attended this past Friday at Glad Works a full service Ad Agency in Pawtucket Rhode Island

Received this email from Rhode Island Association of Realtor regarding a bill the RI state house wants to pass. Which I agree with the Realtors that it should NOT pass. What do you think?

Here is the email below from the RI Association of Realtors:

Rhode Island now has an unemployment rate of 13%, the third highest in the country. So why do some legislators want to charge you $100 per year just for the “privilege” of working?

S 1025 and H 6330 would require anyone who works as an independent contractor to pay a a new fee of $100 per year to register with the RI Dept. of Labor and Training. If you receive a 1099 tax form instead of a W-2, odds are this legislation will affect you. Here are just some of the professions that could be affected: mortgage brokers, lawyers, real estate salespeople, appraisers, auto dealers, hair dresser, home inspectors, travel agents, insurance agents, financial planners, psychologists, eye doctors, and other health care workers.

The original purpose of this S 1025 and H 6330 was to crack down on companies and workers who wrongly work under the table and don’t pay taxes. However, this legislation also hurts law-abiding workers like you by charging you $100 per year just to work. Neither Massachusetts nor Connecticut charges its workers a fee like this.

What can you do? Take five minutes to contact your state representative, state senator and Governor Carcieri’s office right away and tell them that you oppose the $100/year fee for independent contractors.

Your legislators will be back in session on October 28^th. Act now.

Contact your Sentor and Representatives.

http://www.rilin.state.ri.us/House/

http://www.rilin.state.ri.us/Senate/

Contact the Governor

http://www.governor.ri.gov/contact/

FREE First Time Home Buying Workshop!

Stop Throwing Money Away on RENT!

Workshop will be conducted by

Mark Corbett from The Buyer's Choice a company that specializes in representing Buyers exclusively. The workshop will focus on the secrets that all buyer should know about when purchasing a home and the benefits of using a company that only represents buyers.

www.thebuyerschoice.com

Bobby Kayrouz from Primary Residential Mortgage, Inc. will be talking about the benefits for first time home buyer using FHA loans and the first time homebuyer's $8,000 tax credit.

www.primaryresidentialmortgage.com

Workshop will be held at Panera Bread

5 New London Avenue, Cranston, 02920

Time 7pm-8pm Date: Thursday, May 7, 2009

Pre Register is a must to attend.

(401) 725-5608 or e-mailing Mark@thebuyerschoice.com

All pre-registers will receive a 63 page Home Buying E-Book and a complimentary pass to our Tour of Homes EVENT where you will see Mark in action, he will select 6 GREAT properties where we will spend 20 min at each property. You can leave or return at anytime on the tour. By attending the event you will get a certified exclusive buyer's agent point of view! You may choose to attend a Northern RI or Northern MA Tour, which will be held during an upcoming weekend.

A friend of mine who is a past client asked me last week what exactly does a short sale mean?

It's not hard to hear the news or media use the word short sale, or pre foreclosure. There are three steps in the foreclosure process, which are Pre foreclosure, Auction, and Foreclosed Property, which is also called REO or Real Estate Owned, or Banked Owned Property.

Pre foreclosure, that's the step before the bank is going to foreclose on the property, which the owner still owns the property, but is behind in their mortgage, so the bank starts the foreclosure process. Then you have the foreclosure auction that's when the banks auctions the property off to the highest bidder. This is not necessary the 1st mortgage that is foreclosing. That's why it is important to know who is foreclosing, so you don't get stuck with the other liens on the property. Lastly you have the foreclosed property that's when the bank owns the property.

A short sale can happen in the pre foreclosure stage. Not all pre foreclosures are short sales. If the seller is in pre foreclosure and can sell the house, which can pay off all the debt of the property such as the mortgage(s) and liens, or if the seller can come up with the funds to pay off all debt, then the seller does not need to do a short sale.

A short sale is when the seller still owns the property, however for the seller to sell the property they need the bank's approval of the sale, since the seller is upside down in the property. The house is worth less in the current market than what is owned on the property, they need the bank to forgive that shortage for the sale to go through, since the seller does not have the funds and the property is worth less than what is owed on it.

I personally do not like short sales for buyers. Typically banks before they will consider doing a short sale with an owner they will want to see that the property has been exposed to the market fully and this takes time. Also success rates for short sales for closing are not high, which means that the buyer can wait a long time and the bank does not approve the short sale. The buyers gets to start the home buying process over again. Pre-foreclosure and auctions I would stay away from unless you have a the right professionals lined up to work with and know how to purchase them correctly, especially a real estate attorney that can run the title to make sure who is foreclosing and if there are any liens on the property, as well as if the buyer has the patience for it.

If your going to buy a foreclosed property I would purchase it at the time when the bank owns the property, they will usually list it with a listing agent. You are buying the property "as is" condition with no warranties of any kind, but now the bank owns the property. I would still highly recommend having a real estate attorney do a title search to make sure you are getting a clear and marketable title as well as you want the attorney to issue you an owners title insurances policy. I would also recommend having a qualified home inspector inspect the property too.

If you have excellent credit, and will be purchasing a $300,000-$1,500,000 or more home or condo in the Providence, Rhode Island area, or surrounding RI neighborhoods or Southern Massachusetts in the next 90 days and would like to be represented by the Corbett TEAM of Certified Exclusive Buyer Agents (Trained in "Negotiation" for representing ONLY BUYERS 100% of the time!)"Call us at 401-725-5608 for a phone consultation!