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If you are late on your payment...Don't Wait, negotiate with your lender

If you are late on your mortgage, receiving demand letters and in fear of being foreclosed....you have options, but please don't wait on your lender to give them to you. Call them yourself and start trying to work it out. Your lender doesn't want the foreclosure...they have enough of those already!!!

Recently I received a call from a lady needing to sell her home.  During our conversation she tells me she's several months late on her mortgage and that she has received a letter that it is going to be foreclosed in 4 days. I felt terrible for her, and I knew the story she had told me was 100% true. The trouble is, even with my mitigation training, I knew 4 days wasn't enough time to initiate other options and stop the foreclosure. We tried, but the lender told me that it would take 2 weeks and she had waited to long. The moral of this story is don't wait. In a time like this, it's natural to ignore the mail and the phone because you feel ashamed and scared. The irony is, if you would call them, they have options for you! Most lenders will allow you to list the house for immediate market price regardless of what you owe. This is called a short sale. They will send you a 1099 for the balance at the end of year as income, but it beats having a foreclosed home on your credit for 10 years. Many lenders also offer loan modifications to get you current faster and help you stay in your home.

Houston Housing Market Proves Strong in April

April MLS statistics reverse the decline that began in March

It was a good Month for Houston in home sales! The market is performing well for both buyers and sellers. Here's an excert from the official press release from Houston Association of Realtors:

HOUSTON — (May 10, 2007) – Single-family home sales in April rose compared to April of last year, reversing the first decline in more than three years. Prices last month also continued to show strength, as both the average and median sales prices increased in line with trends seen during the last few years. Perhaps signaling statistical validation of experts’ suggestions that tighter subprime lending standards will have a negative impact on home sales, the primary price range of homes showing sales weakness has been those homes priced at $140,000 or less, according to statistics released by the Houston ssociation of REALTORS®. At the same time, homes in the $400,000-plus range have seen tremendous strength in sales.

Total property sales for the month registered 7,275, which was a 2.7 percent increase over April 2006. Properties sold during the month reached a total of more than $1.4 billion, an 8.5 percent increase compared to last year’s more than $1.3 billion in April sales. Additionally, the median home price for a single-family home reached a monthly record for April of $150,000, and the average single-family home price came in at $205,511, increases from last year of 2.0 and 4.8 percent, respectively.

Click here to read the entire article.

Houston has historically been a very affordable housing market. Subprime changes will affect some buyers' ability to purchase, but the upside of that is it will also help to slow foreclosure rates over time. In general,  As noted in a previous post, our local market is performing well. 

What is a buyer's agent?

Talking with a group of friends yesterday, the subject came up regarding agency relationships in a real estate transaction. I realized many people don't know exactly when they are truly represented and when they're not.  For those of us in the business, I think we often take for granted that our customers and clients understand the laws of agency when in fact, they have no idea.  I felt compelled to post an explanation of the buyer's agent.

When you are deciding to purchase a home, it is in your best interest to select one agent that you can work well with to help you. They should go over with your your needs and wants and find out exactly what you're looking for and when you plan to move. They should follow-up with you and communicate well with you.  There's alot more to being your agent than just unlocking the doors of the houses you want to see. This should be a relationship built on trust, respect, and mutual understanding.

The real key is that they Represent YOU!
Ever gone to a builder who encourages you not to use a Realtor? (maybe the house price is less without a Realtor on contract with you...). Here's why...if you write a contract with a builder and you have no Realtor on the contract, then you have no representation in the transaction. The contractors, sales professional, builders, and other builder employees work for the builder and represent that builders interest first...not yours!
The builder is not the only place you can have a transaction without representation. If you call the listing agent to show you a house and you decide to buy it. That agent becomes the "intermediary", meaning that they carry information back and forth from buyer to seller, and facilitate the transaction, but they are not truly representing your interest FIRST! The agent you have selected to represents you, can show you any house on the market.
Many agents in Texas operate as "sub-agents", meaning they do not have you on a buyer's representation agreement and they are sub agents of the seller.

What does all of these mean and how does it affect you?
You should work with one Realtor, who represents your interest first. By signing a buyer's representation agreement with a Realtor, you have in writing that she/he will put your interest first when showing, negotiating, or closing the transaction. This agency relationship will provide you with the security you need to know that anything you say in confidence stays in confidence, that you have someone looking out for your benefit, and that you have been given all facts to make a sound decision.

Here's a list (brief) of the things your Realtor will do when working as your buyer's agent:

1. Help you get preapproved with a lender
2. Show you any house on the market
3. Review your Good Faith Estimate with you
4. Provide you will comparable sales in the neighborhood before making an offer
5. Guide you through the negotiation process
6. Give you a list of steps to follow from contract to close
7. Support you through each step
8. Guide you through inspections and repairs (or re-negotiating if necessary)
9. Ensure that you have been given Residential Service Contract information on reputable companies
10. Go over your final settlement statement with you and compare it to your good faith
11. attend closing
12. Follow-up after closing

This is not a comprehensive list by any means. One additional thing you need to aware of, in almost every real estate transaction I've ever done, (even when I worked at the title company), there are always unforeseen changes and obstacles. Your agent should be prepared for these and make them as painless as possible for you.

If you'd like a more detailed report on how a buyer's agent can help you. Send me an email to holly@soldonlakeconroe.com and I'll deliver it to you.

Senior Texans need your Help on May 12th

IMPORTANT !!

If you are a Texas homeowner then this
is important to you. If you agree, please
pass along to all in your email list who
are Texas residents.
Everyone needs to be aware of a
constitutional amendment that will be
on the ballot at the May election.
It is an amendment to correct an
error made by the lawmakers when
they voted for a reduction in school
property taxes in 2005. When the law-
makers voted for a one-third reduction
of school property taxes beginning in
2006 and to be completed this year,
they forgot about the homestead
exemption for senior citizens and
people with disabilities. The state
constitution caps school property taxes
for homeowners 65 years or older
and those who are disabled. However,
they DID NOT get the same reduction
when the property tax cut for schools
was voted on two years ago. So an
amendment is on the May ballot to
correct this error.
The problem is that most voters who are
younger than 65 or not disabled probably
won't even notice the amendment or care.
PLEASE get out and vote for this
amendment ... if not for yourself, then for
your parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles
and friends. We would really appreciate
your getting the word out to all your
friends and families to vote for this
amendment.
The fear is that with a low voter turnout,
the amendment could very well not pass.
So, please, please pass the word and vote FOR the constitutional amendment.
Early voting will take place
April 30-May 5 from 7 am to 7 pm
May 6 from noon to 6 pm, and
May 7-May 8 from 7 am to 7 pm.
Election day is
May 12 from 7 am to 7 pm.
Spread the word
and VOTE!!!

Things are better in Texas!

At least in the housing market

Lately, I've been watching and reading an awful lot of doom & gloom on the housing market and I'm sure you have too. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) just announced last week that median housing prices are expected to fall in 2007...well, that's not true for Texas. According to Texas A&M Research Center, the trend in Texas will "buck" the national average.  The Houston MLS aka "local mls" (which is made up of Harris, Fort Bend and Montgomery Counties) reported a 3% increase over February of last year.  In a Press Release issued by the local Mls, single-family home sales were down in March, but it was still the 2nd highest number of sales ever recorded in the month of March...up 23.3% from last month. And our home prices continue to rise.
The Houston area is notorious for our affordable housing in comparison with the rest of the country. The trend is expected to continue. Within all these statistics & numbers is a huge opportunity...so don't believe everythng you're hearing on the cable news channels!