Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Official Waiting Period After a Short Sale



Fannie Mae is changing the required waiting period for a borrower to be eligible for a mortgage loan after a preforeclosure event. The waiting period commences on the completion date of the preforeclosure event, and may vary based on the maximum allowable LTV, CLTV, and HCLTV ratios (referred to herein as LTV ratios) and occupancy of the property. These new policies will be updated in the Selling Guide, B3-5.3-07, Derogatory Credit Information, and in B3-5.3-10, DU Credit Report Analysis. The new "Official" waiting period after a Pre-foreclosure event:

Announcement SEL-2010-05

Short Sale (With Extenuating Circumstances)                       2 years for 90% maximum LTV ratios


Fannie Mae’s policies for extenuating circumstances remain unchanged and are fully described in the Selling Guide, B3-5.3-08, Extenuating Circumstances for Derogatory Credit.

Friday, April 16, 2010

CRIMINAL CHARGES AGAINST THE BIG WALLSTREET GUYS???

Wow! Shocking security fraud charges against Wall Street behemoth Goldman Sachs are likely to affect the markets in the short term but unlikely to have longer-lasting effects, market experts said.

Stocks dropped sharply and Goldman [GS 158.52 -25.75 (-13.97%) ] in particular surrendered well over 10 percent in share price, but the reaction on trading floors and from portfolio managers is that investors will get over the shock in short term.

"Everything we're dealing with happened a couple of years ago," said Dave Lutz, managing director of trading for Stifel Nicolaus in Baltimore. "Ultimately, once this noise has washed out, it's going to translate into one heck of a buying opportunity."

Anton Schutz, portfolio manager at Burnham Financial Services, called the investigation into Goldman "a witch hunt" and politically expedient at a time when Main Street investors are increasingly suspicious of Wall Street business practices.

The prevailing sentiment was that the damage to Goldman and the financial markets would only provide opportunity.
The negative effect for Goldman Sachs will be "significant," but will be a "short-term problem" for the company, said Dick Bove, an analyst for Rochdale Securities. "Whenever the SEC issues these type of charges against a company, there's generally a long, drawn-out legal battle that will change the company's procedures. But it will be a short-term problem. For the long term, it will pass," Bove said.
However, the quick decline also could set up for those with a more immediate time horizon

"The Goldman news today could cause the same market reaction as (President) Obama’s announcement in January that he would seek to regulate the business practices of our nations banks," said Thomas H. Kee Jr., President and CEO of Stock Traders Daily.
"From there, the market fell hard. From here, because the technicals and fundamentals are showing resistance at the same time, a similar market decline can follow. In January, the technicals and fundamentals lined up too. More importantly though, many short sellers were lined up then, and they are lined up now. There are plenty of similarities. In January, the button was pushed by Obama. This time, it was pushed by the SEC."

All in a day's work!

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

HOW DOES THE SUDDEN DEATH OF REO'S AND SHORT SALES AFFECT REALTORS?

Responding to concerns about my last posting, I thought I would share my response to an Agent about what I think would happen to our industry in the near term, if REO and Short sales are severely restricted.


I think we need to think that is will be great for the Country and the Economy, and that will result in a more stable and long lasting recovery of our Industry.

Short term, I think it will cancel a great deal of short sales, even the ones that are listed, being negotiated and even those that are ready to close soon. REOs will also be reduced to a minimum.

Minimum and cancellation does not mean, we will have ZERO business. I think it will take 60% to maybe 70% of the properties off the table (will not be foreclosed or short sold), we will still have foreclosures and short sales, and a lot of the ones that accept the 3 month trial will end up trickling back into foreclosure or short sale.

We will also have many investor owned properties in default, that will be harder to qualify to modify and where investors are less likely to negotiate with the banks.

On the bright side, the dissipating of the Shadow Inventory, will make the market very stable, the economy is already recovering and growing, the stability will bring confidence in the system and our economy will begin a very, very strong recovery and we might even see the beginning of a GREAT ECONOMY very soon. This will bring a healthy Real Estate market throughout the Nation, and we will go back to doing great, just like before this meltdown.

The ones that should be sorry, are the handful of agents that horded the REOs and treated the rest of us like crap, the ones that thought they were the "Middle Kingdom", for those, the time to pay the piper is closing in......... and I am sooooo glad.
THE END OF REO AND SHORT SALES IS NEAR?....Quite possibly yes!

The Banking industry, through HAFA, might have pulled out a genius move: To disipate the "Shadow Inventory" cloud, without writting off their debt, without changing non performing loans to the liability column, without affecting the balance of their reserves..... They did this, plus: They removed the stigma of a "Tsunami" of foreclosures that would bring prices down.


Plus: They are keeping America in their houses.



All these was accomplished in a swift move, in which Banks decided to contact millions of borrowers in default, some already involved in short sale of their homes; offering a 3 month trial period at a very reduced monthly payment, with the promise of modifying their loan if they pay ontime.



The smart thing about this is, that banks will not reduce the principal owed by the borrower, they simply will drop rate, will extend the term, will do whatever it takes to reduce the monthly payment, to a level that the homeowner will qualify to pay, and schedule an escalation of this payment during the next 5 years, ending with a payment similar to where it was at the beginning, after 5 or 7 years. After all, the Fed. rate for banks is something like 1%, so whatever the banks do, they will still be making a profit.

By the time the borrower realices that his payment is too high (after 5 or 7 years), properties will most likely will be back to the value they had before the big drop, so if the borrower decides to sell, it would not be a short sale anymore.



Genius..... the only victims, unfortunatelly are the Realtors, but this is just the first 3 to 5 months, in the end, the whole economy benefits from this great idea, and that itself means a great Real Estate market with regular sales, no more REO Gurus or Gods, in the near future.

God Bless America!!!

Monday, April 12, 2010

ECONOMIC INDICATORS (Explained):

The National Association of Realtors reported that its pending home sales index, a forward-looking indicator based on signed contracts, rose 8.2% in February after a revised 7.8% decrease in January. The February reading was the largest gain since October 2001. MEANS BUYERS ARE BACK, HOUSES ARE NOT DROPPING IN PRICE....THIS IS GREAT!


According to the Federal Reserve, consumer credit debt fell in February by $11.5 billion, an annual rate of 5.6%. Economists had forecast that consumer debt would rise by $500 million. Consumer credit rose in January by $10.6 billion, ending a record 11 consecutive months of decline. MEANS PEOPLE ARE NOT SPENDING AS MUCH AS THEY WERE BEFORE THIS CRISIS, WE ARE BEING MORE CONSERVATIVE...THIS IS GOOD, SLOWS THE RECOVERY BUT IS GOOD.

Sales at U.S. retail chains rose 9.1% in March. It was the largest monthly jump since recordkeeping began in 2000. Economists had anticipated a 6.3% increase. WE ARE MORE CONFIDENT, WE ARE SPENDING WHERE IT IS NEEDED...THIS IS GOOD.

Initial claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose by 18,000 to 460,000 in the week ending April 3. Continuing claims for the week ending March 27 fell by 131,000 to 4.55 million..THIS IS NOT GOOD, WE STILL HAVE BIG UNEMPLOYMENT, THE ECONOMY IS GETTING STRONGER AND JOBS WILL BE BACK, UNFORTUNATELLY THEY ALWAYS TAKE A LONG TIME TO DO SO.

The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage applications for the week ending April 2 fell 11%. Purchase volume increased 0.2%. Refinancing applications fell 16.9%...MORE HOME BUYERS, THIS IS GOOD...NOT THAT MANY REFINANCING, IS OBVIOUS...THERE IS NO EQUITY!

The Commerce Department said wholesalers increased their inventories by 0.6% in February following a revised 0.1% rise in January. Sales at the wholesale level rose 0.8% in February, marking the 11th straight monthly gain..THIS IS GOOD, IT SHOWS CONFIDENCE IN THE ECONOMY...THIS IS ALL WE NEED TO BRING IT BACK!


WE ARE THE WORLD....WE ARE THE CHILDREN....LA LA LA LA LA

Friday, April 2, 2010

SOCIAL MEDIA, THE NEXT BIG WAVE???
I think Social Media will be the future "dot.com" trend, right now it might be worthless, silly and aparently pointless, specially for those of us who are more analytical and business oriented. But sooner than later, a critical mass of users will be reached, and social media will then become an incredibly powerful tool, software will take advantage of it, windows or whatever the leading company is at that time will incorporate tools that we haven't even dreamed about, based on social media network. All because in the end, it is a NETWORK, and incredibly intricate network like we have never seen before. There will be a time when we will all be connected to it, and it will become the most powerful network ever.




GOD BLESS THE FUTURE !!!

What do you think?