Shelby DiBiase

Great news was released by President Obama a few days ago in a press conference from the White House. Amongst other things, the President talked about rewarding homeowners, who have been doing the right thing and have acted responsibly, by taking a step further and “cutting by more than half the refinancing fees that families pay for loans ensured by the Federal Housing Administration.” He added that this will save the typical family in that situation an extra $1000 a year on top of the savings that they’d also receive from refinancing.

FHA is reducing its premium to .01 percent, from 1 percent, for streamlined refinancing of loans originated prior to June 1, 2009 and cutting the annual fee in half to .55 percent, from 1.15 percent. The fee cuts begin June 11.

He also talked about helping homeowners who have served our country. Homeowners who were in the military and got wrongfully foreclosed on, he said, will be substantially compensated. For members of the armed forces who have a high interest rate and were wrongfully denied the opportunity to refinance and lower their interest while they were actively serving, the banks will refund them the money with a significant penalty.

In this news conference, President Obama urged the congress several times to pass a housing assistance proposal that would apply the administration’s HARP program to all loans. Currently HARP only applies for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans.

This is great news for everybody, as the President said, it’s about time that people who are responsible get rewarded for trying to keep their homes, their “American dreams”, and feel supported by their own government.

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Buying a new home (or your first home) is a really big step in life. Getting pre-approved is the very first thing you should do before you start looking for homes because this will allow you to know how much you can afford and in what price range you can look.

Getting pre-approved with a competent and efficient lender is also crucial, since you want your pre-approval to be accurate to avoid having to cancel on deals and potentially lose money that you invested on inspections and appraisals.

Another significant part of the pre-approval process is that, together with your lender, you will evaluate different loan options. You may qualify for some of the most common loans out there; such as a conventional loan, FHA, VA (home financing for veterans & military), etc.

FHA – This type of loan is great if you are:

• · A first time homebuyer, don’t have a lot of money to put down on a house, want to keep monthly payments as low as possible, you are worried about payments going up and you don’t have perfect credit.

VA - VA home loan programs help veterans finance the purchase of homes with favorable loan terms and at an interest rate typically lower than rates charged on other types of mortgages

This type of loan offers:

• · No down payment, negotiable interest rate, closing costs comparable with other financing types and much more.

Conventional loans – A conventional loan is a mortgage that is not guaranteed or insured by any government agency. A conventional loan is a 30-year fixed rate mortgage. That means it has a fixed interest rate for the 30 year term of the loan. Conventional loans also typically require at least a 20 percent down payment.

So now that you know the basics, if you are trying to find a new home, work with a competent lender who can give you advice and pre-qualify you. So then you will get to do the fun part – shopping for your dream home!

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Save Our Home AZ offers troubled AZ homeowners assistance with two foreclosure prevention programs. Unemployed AZ homeowners can apply for the Unemployed Payment Assistance Program, which provides temporary payment assistance for up to 24 months while homeowner seeks employment. Underemployed

AZ homeowners can apply for the Principal Reduction Program. This program provides a loan modification utilizing principal reduction of up to $50,000 with matching contribution from participating lender to reduce the mortgage payment to 31% of the homeowner’s monthly income. Participants must meet certain requirements, including eligible hardship, property type, loan balance, income level, and other conditions.

Save Our Home AZ has been created to assist responsible homeowners avoid foreclosure on their primary residence in the state of Arizona.

We made a video for you explaining the benefits, qualifications and exploring other options, in case the program does not work for you.

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To update you with current statistics on recent home sales, according to the Cromford Associates, LLC, as of March 1, 2012 from Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service (Maricopa County):

There were 23,511 Active Residential Listings- Same time last year we had 40,240

Of these Active Residential listings:

1,626 were Lender Owned- (7%) - same time last year: 7,055 (17%)

8,349 were Pre-Foreclosure/Short Sales (35%)- same time last year: 15,441 (38%)

12,391 were Normal Listings (53%) – same time last year 16,470 (41%)

There were 11,693 transactions pending- same time last year 11,997

There is just a little over 3 months supply of residential inventory currently on the market, whereas last year at this time we had over 5 months of residential inventory listed. Inventory of homes for sale in some price ranges remains EXTREMELY LOW!!

As a licensed REALTOR I have access to the most up to date information available- and can find data specific to your neighborhood or for your particular area of interest. Just let me know if you have questions and remember….

Real Estate is my FULL TIME career. I can help you navigate through all of this information to find answers that make sense for you,to make your best real estate investment decisions.

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I am very excited about this class I am attending tomorrow, March 1^st, 2012. I was invited to be a panelist to speak about my experience and all the work that goes behind the curtains when you list Freddie Mac properties. WeMAR has put together this two-day Government Home Real Estate Professional training program, offering licensed REALTORS the opportunity to become specialized in the process of selling:

• Fannie Mae
• Freddie Mac
• And HUD homes

In this class, attendees will have the opportunity to learn from local Government Home listing agent experts, PLUS hear directly from REO lenders how to get more deals closed and understand what happens during the life of an REO escrow.

This is a big deal to us as a team because we strive to provide nothing but EXCELLENT service to the people we work with during the life of our REO listings and throughout the escrow process. We take a lot of pride in listing homes for Freddie Mac and we always want the agents that we deal with to be happy and see that we maintain as much transparency as we can.

There’s still time to sign up for this class! If you would like to register, go to www.WeMAR.org, click on March 1. Price is $69.00 and includes GHREP manual; reference CD, Certificate and lunch for both days. They will also be raffling off a Kindle Fire valued at $199.00!

Come and see us! You will not be disappointed!

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