Real Estate

A new array of challenges has hit the battered mortgage industry. Pros and Cons alike are both heavy in the new version of RESPA, or the Real Estate Procedures Settlement act. HUD (housing and urban development), the overseer of these laws and policies, has had made some sweeping changes to the required documents.

The primary thing is the new Good Faith Estimate. There have been a multitude of changes to this document, and we don’t have space to cover all of them but here’s the highlights:

• 6 pieces of data must be collected before a GFE is required: borrower’s name, social security # for pulling credit, monthly income, property address, loan amount sought, estimated value of property.
• New Good Faith Estimate must be issued to the person applying for a mortgage within 3 days of application.
• After, origination, points, YSP and lender fees CANNOT CHANGE*.
• Effective now GFE’s and HUD sheets must contain much more info such as length of time rate/fees are good for and the prepayment penalty
• After, 3rd party fees such as title, escrow etc can change but have different tolerances (I E they can only change 10% from original and so on) depending on if the borrower picked that 3rd party provide or not.
• * Broker/lender fees can change in a few exception scenarios such as change in loan type, borrower request, new construction and a handful of other loopholes. However, there is still a process and the borrower must sign a letter of intent before a new GFE is issued.
• There is a 10 day waiting period after issuance of the original good faith estimate before a revised one can be sent for any reason.
• There is a phase in period for the new GFE which is complex by itself. See the links below for a full explanation.

I could go on and on. The mortgage broker I work for has had us go through several hours of classes and we have had more than a few meetings about the new Good Faith Estimate and all the changes. There is one vital analysis that we’ve made- since the GFE is triggered on 6 pieces of information, one being property address, this means on purchase preapproval situations wont require a GFE for compliance. For loan originators this is vital. If you are a realtor or loan officer you should check out this very excellent reference card here RESPA_MDIA Quick Reference Guide.

Some other documents for your review:

Settlement Booklet December 15 REVISED this by law must go out with all GFE’s

RESPA Manual FINAL pretty large

HUD’s consumer testing report of the new GFE while looking for something else, I stumbled on this crazy document. Behold.

And so, in summation: This new red tape will not be an obstacle to quality mortgage brokers who take pride in their ethics, morals and customer service. I do think that the consumer will receive both benefits and detriments due to the new RESPA. On the one hand it will be very difficult for shady loan officers to bait and switch anymore. On the other hand Real Estate is never without it’s surprises and I can see this being very difficult to work with. I estimate that these changes will add another 1-2 hours of compliance to my work week.

Although many people out there dread “short sales” when looking for homes, please be patient because things are changing. Lenders are starting to become more cooperative  with these types of sales. A recent article in the Sacramento Bee stated the following regarding short sales:

“It’s a more cooperative solution,” said David Sunlin, senior vice president with Charlottebased Bank of America Home Loans. He said the firm is adding staff and streamlining procedures to do more short sales more quickly as an alternative to foreclosing. “It allows the borrower to leave on their own terms. It’s a more dignified exit strategy and the credit reporting is less negative afterward,” he said. “It’s a win for the lender as well. It’s going to shorten the recovery cycle, which is important to all of us.”

Many clients and prospective buyers want to know why short sales take so long to get approved…

Short sales take so long because lenders must negotiate permission from other parties, such as investors and private mortgage insurers. Most recent home loans also have so-called “seconds,” an extra loan that financed the down payment. Other short sales involve home equity loans or homeowner associations seeking restitution for unpaid dues.

From SacBee.com

For the full article click here

If you know anyone who may be in a short sale situation, please have them give me a call before they decide to let their home foreclose. We are also hearing now that by doing a short sale, rather than foreclosing, a homeowner can potentially buy another property in as little as 2 years. I am here as a resource and would like to help as many people as possible to save them from foreclosure.

There was little fluctuation in the median sales price and volume in April but there was a 17% increase over last year’s 1450 sales. Foreclosures continue to be a huge percentage of sales, counting for 65% of all sales in April. This percentage has come down each month since January, where distressed properties were over 75% of sales. The median home price decreased from $167,500 to $167,100 in April. The biggest change is that listing inventory is down. It is showing a 14.2% decrease from 6,266 homes for sale to 5,377. The housing market supply has decreased to 3.1 months. This figure represents the amount of time, in months, that it would take to deplete the total listing inventory given the current rate of sales. (Stats from Sacrealtor.org) Anything under 3 months of inventory is typically considered a “seller’s market” and if you talk with many buyers out there, I am sure they are feeling like this is now the case. Most bank owned properties (REO’s) are priced very competitively and so buyers are having to come up over asking price to get the property they want. Not only that but with reduced inventory, buyers do not have as many choices as they used to. Also, many first time buyers are starting to feel the pressure of getting into a home by December 1st so they can take advantage of the tax credit from the federal government. Check out the graph below to see the changes in the Sacramento real estate market over the last four years.

sales_median_price_rates0

Some people may also be curious as to what I am seeing in the market on a day to day basis. I can tell you there are a lot more short sales than there used to be. If you or anyone you know is behind ,or is soon to be behind on your mortgage, please call me as banks are more willing to accept short sales than they ever have been. With these sales buyers have to be patient as they can take 30-100 days. Unlike an REO property, you will not get a response within 7-10 days. What I am also seeing is that buyers are having to come over and above the asking price but, on some occasions, are not always having to pay the original price they came up to during the initial “bidding war”. I have had two clients over the last month that have come up in price on a property in hopes of having the winning bid. The good news is that both clients came up high enough and got their offers accepted, the better news is that the appraisals didn’t come in at the original purchase price and so both sellers came down in price about 10,000 each! You can bet my clients were more than happy about this.

If I can answer any questions about real estate for you or anyone you know, please feel free to call or email me.

Thanks!

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