Virginia Juarez

In Mississippi, we have a program sponsored by the federal government to help stabilize neighborhoods that have been negatively impacted by the presence of foreclosures. This program is a one-time payment assistance grant for individuals buying foreclosed property. The total amount of assistance can reach up to $39999 based upon a person's credit score. The individuals have to qualify for the amount of the purchase price and the downpayment but if they are buying a HUD home their initial investment can be as little as $100 for the downpayment and their prepaids (taxes and homeowner's insurance policy) There are also income limits. As you can well understand this is a very popular program imagine taking between $15,000 to $39999 off of the price of a property.

I have been working with a few buyers, wanting to take advantage of this program and thought I would share some of the things I have discovered while working with people who are looking at buying a foreclosure property, hopefully it will eliminate some of the surprise factors if you choose to work this market.

1. First and foremost - let your buyers as to what they can expect before you view any properties Tell them to expect missing appliances, cabinets, siding, plumbing, windows, electrical fixtures. There will in all likelihood be bugs on the floors, dirty walls and the house will not smell good most of the time.

In the winter it will be cold and in the summer it will be hot. Tell them to dress comfortable with sensible shoes. The electricity and water are disconnected in most cases. Don't expect to be able to use the facilities. Bring a flashlight and a measuring tape. Some banks do have the water and electricity on but many do not.

2. Evaluate your clients needs- Use a form to assess their needs

a. Evaluate their eagerness and motiviation.

b. Are they willing and able to follow through on your advice and suggestions.

c. What is their risk/reward threshold?

d. Determining if time is of the essence for the buyer.

e. Communicating a realistic timeline for closing the transaction- 60-90 days and in some cases longer.

f. What type of financing will they be using...this will determine what type of foreclosure they can realistically purchase. Some mortgage companies don't offer the type of loan they will need, if the damage is extensive.

3. Red Flags :

If they don't understand the true meaning of "as-is" and ask- "Do you think they will replace the appliances?" after you have explained "as-is" several times.

If they wrinkle up their nose and say "eeewwwww roaches...this is so gross!" time and time again.

If they want to know if the contract can be made contingent to the sale of another house.

If they don't have the means to repair and rehab the property and don't qualify for a 203K loan, you are wasting your time and theirs by showing them homes that need more than cosmetic repair.

If they think the bank or the seller will come down 50% off the listing price.

Prepare your clients so there are not any surprises and you will be surprised to find out that selling foreclosure can be a very rewarding enterprise for both the buyer client and the realtor. We can make a difference in helping to stabilize some of these neighborhoods.

For more information about the Mississippi Home Buyer's Advantage program paste or click on this link- http://www.mshc.com/hba/.

Like most folks, who have a home, sometimes things aren't perfect and part of home ownership is repair. When we purchased our house a couple of years ago, I really loved the house everything about it was almost perfect except it had a long skinny crack over the doorway leading into the hallway. I could have asked the sellers to repair the crack, but I felt we had asked them for too much already, including the amount we asked them to come down on the price. It was just a little crack, something we could do without too much trouble.

We bought the house and were very cozy in our little home. I began to notice though that sometimes when I was in my bedroom and someone walked in through the front door that I would hear like a little whooshing sound. It begin to annoy me in time and I couldn't figure out what was causing it and to be honest with you I didn't try too hard and what was weird no one else seemed to hear it. Anyway after about a year it really began to bother me and I began to suspect that skinny crack over the door. I had been waiting until I had the time to paint the living room and dining room before I repaired it. I'm the painter in the house. I'm such a stickler for perfection in painting, my husband has given up trying to meet my standards, so he has opted out of the interior painting process. I thought I'd just go ahead and fill in the crack to see if that annoying whooshing sound would go away. So I headed down to Lowes to buy some spackle. I hate spackling anything because it is such a hassle to sand it down smooth so it looks good, and when you paint over it it never looks good. I guess my spacke skills leave much to be desired.

I drove down to Lowes and headed to the paint section. I'm standing there in front of all the spackle stuff. They had all kinds of spackle and spackle-like stuff there. They had stuff for huge cracks, stuff for skinny long cracks, stuff to spray on, stuff to put on with a putty knive, etc. I grabbed the can of spray on stuff, maybe if I used this I could avoid all the sanding, I thought. I'm reading the tiny little print instruction on the can or trying to anyway because I forgot my reading glasses. I hear a voice behind me...."Can I help you, ma'm? I of course, answer in with the regular shopper answer "No thanks, just looking." Then I think, maybe he can help so I quickly turn and holding the spackle product spray can in my hand. I say " Excuse me, sir, does this stuff work?" He's a guy, looks to be in his forties with a slightly balding head and he has a little smirky grin on his face. "What are you going to do with it?" I shook the can slightly, " I have a skinny long crack over my doorway in the living room and I want to fill it in."

He smiled, "Hmmm....sounds like a stress crack or settling crack. I wouldn't suggest you use that spray product."

I was curious about the spray spackle stuff. "Do a lot of people buy this, do you know of anyone who has used it and liked it?"

Shaking his head slightly, he said "I take it you own your home?"

I nodded my head "Yes and I have a crackin my wall that I need to cover."

"I was a painter for over 20 years...you see all of this stuff here he pointed in the direction of the spackle stuff, this is stuff that homeowners like you use, but I can tell you what I as a professional painter would use." He pointed to a small tub of wallboard joint compound and he grabbed a small 3"-4" self -adhering roll of mesh. "You just place this mesh over the crack and then you use a putty knife and apply this compound over the crack. It's thinner than spackle so it will spread evenly and it is easy to sand. This is what I as a professional painter would use."

I didn't think twice I grabbed both items and headed home. I couldn't wait to see if he was correct, so I climbed on a ladder and cut the mesh to the length of the crack. It wasn't super sticky and it stuck right to the wall but yet I could reposition it if I wanted. I then opened the joint compound and I applied it to the wall, it went on exactly like he said, it kind of flowed on and it didn't look like spackle at all. I didn't have to work hard to get it to be smooth because it was smooth. I waited for it to dry and it looked great dry, with a little bit of sanding, you couldn't even tell there had been a crack on the wall. I have a white wall so the repair wasn't obvious. I couldn't wait to show it to my husband. He was impressed with my wall crack repair skills.

Anyway, the whooshing sound is gone and my wall looks good. I can just say I lucked out that the ex-painter sales person happened to be there that day because I learned something very valuable from him. I believe this is a very valuable home repair tip to pass on from a homeowner, who is not a professional painter.