Since last October, we have seen FHA increase the mortgage insurance premiums twice (Yes, April 18th they are going up again to 1.15%). Fannie Mae started charging all kinds of extra fees for low credit scores (if you think a 800 score is low) and high loan to values and now we see two new trial balloons floating out there. They are talking about eliminating the mortgage deduction and raising the minimum down payment for a conventional mortgage to 10%.
Now I think all would agree that housing needs to return to some semblance of normalcy for the U.S. economy to start creating jobs in quantities needed to get back close to full employment. Lost in these changes is the fact that loans for the last couple of years have been performing well. Also I have learned that the VA model (that is 100% loans) has also performed much better than expected.
So why can’t the people responsible for these types of policy changes do their homework and do the right things?
As for me and MIG, we have been doing well. That is mostly because of a great client base, longevity and the knowledge needed to survive in this market. Many others are not so lucky.
I can be reached by phone at 615-777-4663 or via email at george.margrave@migonline.com
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
FHA Increasing MIP Again?
We are hearing rumors that FHA is increasing the MIP (monthly mortgage insurance) sometime in April. They just had a big increase last Fall.
We just get snippets of information from politicians trying to slam more cost on the real estate buyer. I cannot imagine that the last increase has had time to solve the situation it was designed for. So why doesn’t the government just throw some more money at the issues?
The fund is for problem loans and the loans of the last couple of years have to be sound.
You can reach me at 615-777-4663 or via email at George.Margrave@MIGonline.com
We just get snippets of information from politicians trying to slam more cost on the real estate buyer. I cannot imagine that the last increase has had time to solve the situation it was designed for. So why doesn’t the government just throw some more money at the issues?
The fund is for problem loans and the loans of the last couple of years have to be sound.
You can reach me at 615-777-4663 or via email at George.Margrave@MIGonline.com
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Why is This The Best Time in American History to buy a House?
First, mortgage rates (although they are now rising are still very near historic lows.) A five per cent loan has long been unheard of. The only time since 1900 that they were this low was just after World War II. And what happened? The Greatest postwar boom in housing prices-by far.
And we have another thing in our favor. Homes are more affordable than ever. Based on the 40 year history of the Housing Affordability Index, houses are more affordable than they have ever been.
“Affordability” takes three factors into account: home prices, your income and mortgage rates
Home prices have crashed. And mortgage rates are very low. But incomes haven’t fallen nearly as much. So there you have it.
Based on these facts alone, now may be one of the best times in American history-even the very best time to buy a home
So what are you waiting for-- The guy at the water cooler is just a fear monger.
You can reach me at 615.777.4663 or via email at George.Margrave@MIGonline.com
And we have another thing in our favor. Homes are more affordable than ever. Based on the 40 year history of the Housing Affordability Index, houses are more affordable than they have ever been.
“Affordability” takes three factors into account: home prices, your income and mortgage rates
Home prices have crashed. And mortgage rates are very low. But incomes haven’t fallen nearly as much. So there you have it.
Based on these facts alone, now may be one of the best times in American history-even the very best time to buy a home
So what are you waiting for-- The guy at the water cooler is just a fear monger.
You can reach me at 615.777.4663 or via email at George.Margrave@MIGonline.com
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Check It Out
It seems almost negligent these days to go meet with a prospective employer, set your kid up on a sleep-over or even add an old friend on Facebook without first running the company's name, your kid's pal's parents or your old college chum through Google -- just to see. But it's nowhere near as common (yet) to Google or otherwise do an internet search for your home's address.
There are at least six compelling reasons it makes sense to do so, though -- especially if it's an address you're thinking of renting, buying or selling. Smart homeowners would do well to search for their addresses, too, and here's why:
#1. To See If Megan's Law Registrants Live Nearby
Safety first, folks. Megan's law requires law-enforcement authorities to make information available to the public regarding registered sex offenders in their neighborhoods. Nearly every state that has a Megan's law-type sex offender registry has an online version that serves up the names, addresses, sex-offense history, and even photos in many cases, of convicted sex offenders who are registered as living at a certain address. Googling your address and "Megan's law" -- or even your city or zip code and "Megan's law" -- will turn up a quick list of nearby registrants. Alarmism is not a good look -- ever, but many homebuyers with young children highly value this information, especially while they are still in their contingency or objection period, before their home purchase is finalized.
#2. To Find Crime Reports and Data for Your Home and Environs
Cities, counties and state law enforcement agencies all post crime data online, but a Google search for your address or city and "crime reports" is most likely to turn up your local police or sheriff's office's crime map. Or, you can check out the crime stats around a specific property on Trulia’s Map & Nearby tab on the detailed page for your home's address. In my town, for example, you can see a crime map of recent incident reports for the whole city, by zip code, by neighborhood or by address. You can zoom in and out, and the map is in color and letter-coded with little icons representing different types of crimes: red is for violent, blue is for drug crimes, green is for property crimes; and the most common specific offenses reported get their own two-letter code. Whether you own or rent your home, if you hear a siren and wonder what happened, Google might be a good place to look.
This is also a good strategy for home buyers to leverage. In fact, when new homeowners Robert Quigley and Jennifer Friberg started developing headaches and other strange physical symptoms after moving into their first home, a neighbor dropped the informational bomb that the home's previous resident had been cooking methamphetamine in the home. In a panicky effort to suss out the truth, they Googled their address and - yikes! - found it listed on the Drug Enforcement Administration's database of meth labs! If you're considering buying a home, or moving to a neighborhood with which you are not completely familiar, doing a quick address search on Trulia or Google holds the potential to reveal some disturbing or comforting crime activity information.
#3. To Detect Scammers Trying to Rent or Sell Your House. In one of those if-only-they-would-use-their-powers-for-good-not-evil scenarios, Internet scammers have taken to ripping off home information and putting together fake listings offering other people's homes for rent or, often, lease-to-own. They often list the home on extremely cheap and easy terms, then ask the would-be-buyer or tenant to please wire or send the deposit money overseas, where the faux-seller can get it while they're traveling in -- you guessed it -- Nigeria. (And, BTW, I have friends from Nigeria who even distrust emails they get purporting to be from Nigeria!)
These scams come to light, most often, only after the homeowner or current resident notices all the bargain-hunting wanna-be tenants start peering in the windows and tramping through the backyard, checking the place out. If you are getting an inordinate amount of street or foot traffic to your home, or someone knocks on the door asking if they can see the place, you may want to Google your address. If you find a fraudulent listing, contact us, identify yourself as the home's rightful resident and ask us to take the scam posting down - stat!
# 4. To See What Your Neighbor's Place Sold for and Possibly Lower Your Property Taxes. In real estate, the value of your home is largely driven by what similar, nearby homes have recently sold for ("comparable sales," or "comps" for short). That gives every homeowner a valid reason for wanting to know what the neighbor's place sold for (on top of your purely voyeuristic need to know). If you search your address, Trulia will first surface some sort of image of your home, a map, the basic property details from the public records (see No. 5, below), and recent sales data for your own home before listing out the comps -- homes with similar numbers of bedrooms, bathrooms and square feet as yours, near yours, and what they recently sold for. Googling your address, in this instance, does double duty -- letting you satisfy your cat-killing curiosity to know what your new neighbor paid for their place, and track the value of your own home at the same time!
And as an added bonus, if you see a pattern of homes selling for lower than your home's assessed value, you can use those comps to petition your County to lower your own property taxes!
Three birds, one stone - you get the picture.
#5. To See Your Home's Property Records. It's a story as old as homes -- well, at least as old as websites that display home records and listings. Your home's records online are populated from the public records about your home, which are either so old they don't include the upgrades and additions that have been done over time, or they're just flat out wrong for a number of reasons. My last home, while large, certainly did not have the 25 bedrooms one site listed it as having. On the other hand, it also was not a boarding house, which is what that site listed as the property's County-designated use. If you Google your address, or search for it on Trulia, and find that your home's description is riddled with errors, contact us or your County public record agency to correct them; this is particularly important if you're planning to sell your home anytime soon.
#6. To See Your Home's Google Street Views. When you're selling your home, it's especially critical to see everything that prospective home buyers will see. That means checking out how your home's listing looks on all the online real estate sites (yes, even on Trulia), checking out the flier - even stopping by to check out any staging your broker or agent did if you've already moved out. One thing even most savvy sellers don't check out is the way Google Maps Street Views depicts your home. If you're unfamiliar, Google actually hitches up cameras to cars and sends them up and down public streets worldwide, so that Google Maps users can go from an overhead view of a street via satellite to seeing panoramic pics from the street from curb level with one click.
Trust me, home buyers know this, and do this. They often use Street Views as a shortcut for seeing whether a home's photos are just fuzzy, or whether it's next door to the local hoarder's house. Here's the problem: Sometimes, the street views can be outdated. I did a major remodel on my home a few years ago, and the photo was clearly taken mid-construction: with dumpster in front, unpainted siding and all. If you're about to sell your home, and you notice that the street view is outdated, mention it to your agent, and ask them to make a note of that fact in the listing information.
Was posted on walletpop.com
You can reach me via email at George.Margrave@migonline.com or via telephone at 615-777-4663.
There are at least six compelling reasons it makes sense to do so, though -- especially if it's an address you're thinking of renting, buying or selling. Smart homeowners would do well to search for their addresses, too, and here's why:
#1. To See If Megan's Law Registrants Live Nearby
Safety first, folks. Megan's law requires law-enforcement authorities to make information available to the public regarding registered sex offenders in their neighborhoods. Nearly every state that has a Megan's law-type sex offender registry has an online version that serves up the names, addresses, sex-offense history, and even photos in many cases, of convicted sex offenders who are registered as living at a certain address. Googling your address and "Megan's law" -- or even your city or zip code and "Megan's law" -- will turn up a quick list of nearby registrants. Alarmism is not a good look -- ever, but many homebuyers with young children highly value this information, especially while they are still in their contingency or objection period, before their home purchase is finalized.
#2. To Find Crime Reports and Data for Your Home and Environs
Cities, counties and state law enforcement agencies all post crime data online, but a Google search for your address or city and "crime reports" is most likely to turn up your local police or sheriff's office's crime map. Or, you can check out the crime stats around a specific property on Trulia’s Map & Nearby tab on the detailed page for your home's address. In my town, for example, you can see a crime map of recent incident reports for the whole city, by zip code, by neighborhood or by address. You can zoom in and out, and the map is in color and letter-coded with little icons representing different types of crimes: red is for violent, blue is for drug crimes, green is for property crimes; and the most common specific offenses reported get their own two-letter code. Whether you own or rent your home, if you hear a siren and wonder what happened, Google might be a good place to look.
This is also a good strategy for home buyers to leverage. In fact, when new homeowners Robert Quigley and Jennifer Friberg started developing headaches and other strange physical symptoms after moving into their first home, a neighbor dropped the informational bomb that the home's previous resident had been cooking methamphetamine in the home. In a panicky effort to suss out the truth, they Googled their address and - yikes! - found it listed on the Drug Enforcement Administration's database of meth labs! If you're considering buying a home, or moving to a neighborhood with which you are not completely familiar, doing a quick address search on Trulia or Google holds the potential to reveal some disturbing or comforting crime activity information.
#3. To Detect Scammers Trying to Rent or Sell Your House. In one of those if-only-they-would-use-their-powers-for-good-not-evil scenarios, Internet scammers have taken to ripping off home information and putting together fake listings offering other people's homes for rent or, often, lease-to-own. They often list the home on extremely cheap and easy terms, then ask the would-be-buyer or tenant to please wire or send the deposit money overseas, where the faux-seller can get it while they're traveling in -- you guessed it -- Nigeria. (And, BTW, I have friends from Nigeria who even distrust emails they get purporting to be from Nigeria!)
These scams come to light, most often, only after the homeowner or current resident notices all the bargain-hunting wanna-be tenants start peering in the windows and tramping through the backyard, checking the place out. If you are getting an inordinate amount of street or foot traffic to your home, or someone knocks on the door asking if they can see the place, you may want to Google your address. If you find a fraudulent listing, contact us, identify yourself as the home's rightful resident and ask us to take the scam posting down - stat!
# 4. To See What Your Neighbor's Place Sold for and Possibly Lower Your Property Taxes. In real estate, the value of your home is largely driven by what similar, nearby homes have recently sold for ("comparable sales," or "comps" for short). That gives every homeowner a valid reason for wanting to know what the neighbor's place sold for (on top of your purely voyeuristic need to know). If you search your address, Trulia will first surface some sort of image of your home, a map, the basic property details from the public records (see No. 5, below), and recent sales data for your own home before listing out the comps -- homes with similar numbers of bedrooms, bathrooms and square feet as yours, near yours, and what they recently sold for. Googling your address, in this instance, does double duty -- letting you satisfy your cat-killing curiosity to know what your new neighbor paid for their place, and track the value of your own home at the same time!
And as an added bonus, if you see a pattern of homes selling for lower than your home's assessed value, you can use those comps to petition your County to lower your own property taxes!
Three birds, one stone - you get the picture.
#5. To See Your Home's Property Records. It's a story as old as homes -- well, at least as old as websites that display home records and listings. Your home's records online are populated from the public records about your home, which are either so old they don't include the upgrades and additions that have been done over time, or they're just flat out wrong for a number of reasons. My last home, while large, certainly did not have the 25 bedrooms one site listed it as having. On the other hand, it also was not a boarding house, which is what that site listed as the property's County-designated use. If you Google your address, or search for it on Trulia, and find that your home's description is riddled with errors, contact us or your County public record agency to correct them; this is particularly important if you're planning to sell your home anytime soon.
#6. To See Your Home's Google Street Views. When you're selling your home, it's especially critical to see everything that prospective home buyers will see. That means checking out how your home's listing looks on all the online real estate sites (yes, even on Trulia), checking out the flier - even stopping by to check out any staging your broker or agent did if you've already moved out. One thing even most savvy sellers don't check out is the way Google Maps Street Views depicts your home. If you're unfamiliar, Google actually hitches up cameras to cars and sends them up and down public streets worldwide, so that Google Maps users can go from an overhead view of a street via satellite to seeing panoramic pics from the street from curb level with one click.
Trust me, home buyers know this, and do this. They often use Street Views as a shortcut for seeing whether a home's photos are just fuzzy, or whether it's next door to the local hoarder's house. Here's the problem: Sometimes, the street views can be outdated. I did a major remodel on my home a few years ago, and the photo was clearly taken mid-construction: with dumpster in front, unpainted siding and all. If you're about to sell your home, and you notice that the street view is outdated, mention it to your agent, and ask them to make a note of that fact in the listing information.
Was posted on walletpop.com
You can reach me via email at George.Margrave@migonline.com or via telephone at 615-777-4663.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Homes Get Smaller, More Energy Efficient
What features do buyers want today and in the future? The answer: smaller, more energy efficient homes.
The average size of a new single-family home in 2010 was 2,377 square feet, down from 2,438 square feet in 2009 and down from the peak of 2,520 square feet in 2007 and 2008, according to U.S. Census Bureau data presented by Rose Quint, assistant vice president of survey research for NAHB at the International Builders' Show in Orlando Thursday, Jan. 13.
And the trend will only continue, Quint said, with the 2015 new home size currently projected at 2,150 square feet with fewer bathrooms and smaller garages.
It's hard to say whether home sizes will decline to 1970 levels of 1,500 square feet. But Quint says she believes smaller sizes are here to stay based on demographics.
The U.S. population was 310 million as of April 2010. That's expected to rise to 322 million in 2015 and continue to climb up to 422 million by 2050. The population is also getting older and more diverse. In 2010, 25 percent were over the age of 55, which is expected to grow to 31 percent by 3050.
This rising segment of older home owners will not want to care for huge spaces, Quint said. Then you have Generation Y buyers who are very energy conscious. "People are coming to realize, 'Let's buy what we need,'" said Quint.
The Census Bureau data is congruent with NAHB's findings that builders expect to build smaller homes with more green features in the next five years. Low energy windows, water efficient features, engineered wood beams, joints, or trusses, and energy star ratings are expected to be more revenant.
Builders also expect an increase in living room size as well as more planning for universal design features with homes more easily adaptable for future improvements, said Quint.
Jill Waage, executive editor with Better Homes and Gardens, also presented her magazine's 2011 consumer preferences survey, which was taken the first week of December. According to Waage, the top three improvement priorities for home owners are a laundry room, additional storage, and a home office. "The connection to outdoor living space is also really important," Waage said.
Other trends included in the Better Homes and Gardens study: built-ins, media space for flat screen TVs and gaming systems, and areas of the home wired for technology. Buyers also want combined kitchen, family room, and living room open space. Universal design features, she said, will be incorporated in much more subtle ways.
- Erica Christoffer, REALTOR®Magazine
You can reach me at 615-777-4663 or via email at George.Margrave@MIGOnline.com
The average size of a new single-family home in 2010 was 2,377 square feet, down from 2,438 square feet in 2009 and down from the peak of 2,520 square feet in 2007 and 2008, according to U.S. Census Bureau data presented by Rose Quint, assistant vice president of survey research for NAHB at the International Builders' Show in Orlando Thursday, Jan. 13.
And the trend will only continue, Quint said, with the 2015 new home size currently projected at 2,150 square feet with fewer bathrooms and smaller garages.
It's hard to say whether home sizes will decline to 1970 levels of 1,500 square feet. But Quint says she believes smaller sizes are here to stay based on demographics.
The U.S. population was 310 million as of April 2010. That's expected to rise to 322 million in 2015 and continue to climb up to 422 million by 2050. The population is also getting older and more diverse. In 2010, 25 percent were over the age of 55, which is expected to grow to 31 percent by 3050.
This rising segment of older home owners will not want to care for huge spaces, Quint said. Then you have Generation Y buyers who are very energy conscious. "People are coming to realize, 'Let's buy what we need,'" said Quint.
The Census Bureau data is congruent with NAHB's findings that builders expect to build smaller homes with more green features in the next five years. Low energy windows, water efficient features, engineered wood beams, joints, or trusses, and energy star ratings are expected to be more revenant.
Builders also expect an increase in living room size as well as more planning for universal design features with homes more easily adaptable for future improvements, said Quint.
Jill Waage, executive editor with Better Homes and Gardens, also presented her magazine's 2011 consumer preferences survey, which was taken the first week of December. According to Waage, the top three improvement priorities for home owners are a laundry room, additional storage, and a home office. "The connection to outdoor living space is also really important," Waage said.
Other trends included in the Better Homes and Gardens study: built-ins, media space for flat screen TVs and gaming systems, and areas of the home wired for technology. Buyers also want combined kitchen, family room, and living room open space. Universal design features, she said, will be incorporated in much more subtle ways.
- Erica Christoffer, REALTOR®Magazine
You can reach me at 615-777-4663 or via email at George.Margrave@MIGOnline.com
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Grown Children Still at Home?
I heard today that there are more men and women ages 25 to 34 living at home with their parents than at any time since 1981. This number is now 30% of that age group and the number is historically at 28%. So that means that I have a bunch of readers who are affected by this situation. I know it is nice to be with the family, but I also know this can be very awkward. We at MIG can help. Our first time buyer program gives us the ability to get these potential homeowners into a new home or condo in many cases with no cash out of pocket required. And the payment is usually cheaper than renting a comparable place since the interest rates are so low. And if this plan doesn't work, we could put you parents on the loan with the younger person and get them packing their bags. Please call (615-777-4663) or e-mail me for details, email address is george.margrave@migonline.com
Friday, January 14, 2011
Have You Heard?
You probably haven't heard, but Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have done it again. The are making it way more expensive for 75% of your clients and mine to buy or refinance with conventional loans. They have taken risk based pricing to new lows. For example if your client has an 800 score and has a higher loan to value than 75% they will pay a quarter point more (that doesn't sound like much by it adds up to a thousand dollars on a $400,000 loan). If they have a 679 score and a 79% LTV it is 2.75 points. I have trouble even counting that high.
These agencies are bleeding red ink with all the foreclosures, but guess what, if you don't have income you will never reverse the losses. And the loans of the last couple of years have to be performing well. The whole idea of risk based pricing is supposed to charge those with the higher risk more and reward those with low risk. It is not supposed to penalize almost everyone. Almost every conventional loan with a loan to value over 70% had the hit go up, some as much as a half point.
At a time when our industries need all the help we can get we get this. It just delayed our recovery some more. It is bound to push some folks into renting instead of buying. I say lets look at FHA every time we can, because these hits combined with the higher PMI rates are not pretty. Let me help you with the best loan type for your client. Also, contact your represenatives. They have said they want to get the government out of mortgage financing, but their actions are pushing us in the wrong direction.
You can reach me at 615-777-4663 or text me at 615-481-5626 or via email at George.Margrave@MIGonline.com
These agencies are bleeding red ink with all the foreclosures, but guess what, if you don't have income you will never reverse the losses. And the loans of the last couple of years have to be performing well. The whole idea of risk based pricing is supposed to charge those with the higher risk more and reward those with low risk. It is not supposed to penalize almost everyone. Almost every conventional loan with a loan to value over 70% had the hit go up, some as much as a half point.
At a time when our industries need all the help we can get we get this. It just delayed our recovery some more. It is bound to push some folks into renting instead of buying. I say lets look at FHA every time we can, because these hits combined with the higher PMI rates are not pretty. Let me help you with the best loan type for your client. Also, contact your represenatives. They have said they want to get the government out of mortgage financing, but their actions are pushing us in the wrong direction.
You can reach me at 615-777-4663 or text me at 615-481-5626 or via email at George.Margrave@MIGonline.com
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