Support HR 6694! Save Seller Funded Down Payment Assistance Programs August 16, 2008
Posted by Patti Shawgo in First Time Home Buyers, Interesting Stuff, Mortgage News.1 comment so far
In response to that big housing bill that passed, a new bill has been proposed to save those seller funded down payment assistance programs that are set to go away as of October 1st.
Check out the impact of these DPA (down payment assistance) programs in just the state of Maryland (from http://www.ameridream.org/Documents/ImpactSheet/MD.pdf):
- 13,110 Maryland residents have benefited from DPA
- $71,015,801 in DPA gifts have been granted in Maryland
- $2,110,498,419 in mortgages have been made in connection with DPA programs
Go to www.supporthomeownership.com/ to send a letter to your elected officials in support of HR 6694 and learn more about seller funded down payment assistance.
HR 3221: The Bad News…..the End of Seller Funded Down Payment Assitance August 14, 2008
Posted by Patti Shawgo in First Time Home Buyers, Mortgage News.add a comment
FHA loans require buyer’s to contribute 3% of their own funds, these funds can include gift funds. If you didn’t have the 3% or a family member that could give it to you, you could utilize a seller funded down payment assistance program.
These programs like Nehemiah and Ameridream, have been around for a long time. They work by having the seller make a donation to the organization, the organization takes a processing fee and then makes a gift to the home buyer. This gift can count as the 3%.
This will be going away as of October 1st, 2008. You don’t need to close by October 1st, but you do need have a contract and identified who you are using for your mortgage so that you can register your loan with FHA.
If you or someone you know needs the ability to implement down payment assistance as a tool to buy a home, get on it quickly. The clock is ticking.
The end of these programs is going to be a big blow to first time home buyers, who in my experience, don’t always have 3% of the sales price to put down. Even if they have the 3%, does it make sense to have buyers put down all of the extra cash they may have on hand, rather than keeping it for a rainy day? In addition to these programs going away, FHA’s contribution is increasing to 3.5% of the sales price as of October 1st as well.
Need some good news? Down payment assitance programs like CDA DSELP and the Federal Home Loan Bank First Time Home Buyer Program are going to become more important than ever as these funds do count towards a buyer’s required contribution. So talking to an expert in these programs would do a first time buyer a lot of good too!
HR 3221: Inside the new Federal Housing Bill, Part I: Tax Credit for First Time Buyers July 30, 2008
Posted by Patti Shawgo in First Time Home Buyers, Local News, Mortgage News.add a comment
There is a lot that is in this new federal housing bill and I will be writing some posts over the next few days going over the details.
To start with, there is a $7500 tax credit for first time buyer’s who are purchasing between between April 9, 2008 and July 1, 2009.
This is a credit, not a deduction, meaning you can slash $7500 off of what you owe in federal taxes in the year you purchase. This, in effect is the government giving you $7500, but there is a small catch.
A HUGE point that seems to be glazed over a bit in the media with this is that the tax credit must be repaid, so in effect it is more like a deferred loan. It is repaid at 0% interest over 15 years or when the house is sold. Still…anyone giving you $7500 as an interest free loan is a great deal!
Visit this fantastic site to get ALL the details on the tax credit: http://www.federalhousingtaxcredit.com/
Don’t Liquidate Your 401k to pay your mortgage and Other Good Ideas July 29, 2008
Posted by Patti Shawgo in Interesting Stuff, Mortgage Stuff, Optimizing Your Credit.add a comment
I saw this great segment on the Today show and thought I’d share. It makes some good points about foreclosure vs bankruptcy and later in the segment about credit repair.
Here is the link mentioned about Hud.gov and resources for people facing foreclosure: http://www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/sfh/econ/econ.cfm
Plus, in Maryland, please visit www.mdHope.org
Click pic for video pop-up:
Follow Up to FHA 203k Streamline Rehab Loans July 21, 2008
Posted by Patti Shawgo in Uncategorized.1 comment so far
Below is a list of the eligible and ineligible repairs that can be part of a 203k streamline loan. Also….and this is one of the number one questions I get asked about this, you can’t do the work yourself with a streamline 203k! Unless you are a licensed general contractor, electrician, etc, you need to leave that work to professionals that can show they can competently complete the work.
To see what they are, read on…
FHA 203k Streamline: A Great Way to Buy a Bank Owned Property! July 19, 2008
Posted by Patti Shawgo in Interesting Stuff, Mortgage Stuff, Real Estate, Rehabbing.1 comment so far
A big problem is starting to appear. More and more properties that are going into foreclosure are missing appliances, lighting fixtures, cabinets, etc. Anything that is removable and worth some money is starting to disappear before a property goes into foreclosure.
Well, this can become a huge issue for prospective home buyers. Bank owned properties are almost always sold as is, where is. Meaning the bank is not making ANY repairs. However, to get financing, the property may need to have some of these missing items in order to have a clean appraisal. Especially now that FHA is fast becoming the loan of choice for many buyers, what’s are you to do?
There is a fantastic program that FHA has called an FHA 203k Streamline loan. This sibling to the standard 203k Rehab loan is the perfect solution to many bank-owned property sales. With any FHA 203k loan you can finance the cost of property repairs into the loan. With a streamline 203k loan, it just makes the process, you guessed it….streamlined!
If a property needs less than $35,000 in work and has no structural repairs, it is a great candidate for the 203k streamline. It’s easier than a regular 203k loan in that you don’t need a HUD 203k consultant, you can usually close faster than a traditional 203k loan, and there are less fees involved as well. But, and I can’t stress this enough, you need to know going in what repairs you want to do and be fast about getting estimates and picking your contractors if you want to close in a speedy manner.
Another important factor to note, is that the appraised value is based on the after-improved value. So if you are buying a property at $200,000, it doesn’t need to appraise at it’s current state at $225,000 for you to be able to finance the repairs. The appraiser is going to look at what you are planning to do with the property and give you a value for the property once those repairs are complete.
With the rise of foreclosures and the condition that many of these properties are in, I think you will be hearing a lot more about these kind of loan options going forward. Just remember…you heard it hear first!
Learn about First Time Buyer Grant Programs & Tour a Great Property Next Saturday July 12, 2008
Posted by Patti Shawgo in Events, First Time Home Buyers, Local News, Real Estate.add a comment
1714 Aberdeen Road, Parkville, MD
In addition to running a Grant Workshop the first Saturday of every month (see the Grant Workshops tab above), I will occasionally stake out a local open house to bring the wonders of home buyer grants to the general public.
Next Saturday, July 19th, join me at 1714 Aberdeen Road, Parville, MD 21234 in Loch Raven Village for an informal info session. The open house is from 1pm-3pm, so stop by anytime. This is a very low key and not pushy event, so don’t think you are walking into a sales trap, if you read this blog at all, I think you know that’s not my style.
We’ll have some snacks and some info, and you can take a looka fantastic home that qualifies for some great grant programs. The house is located in one of Baltimore County’s Community Conversation areas, which means that it is eligible for the $25,000 Baltimore County MALP program.
Take a look the listing HERE See you all next Saturday!
Find Cheaper Gas in Maryland July 12, 2008
Posted by Patti Shawgo in Interesting Stuff, Local News.1 comment so far
While this is technically related to real estate or mortgages…I think everyone wants to find the lowest price gas around.
The Baltimore Sun, who is great at putting together pretty, interactive graphic tools, has a map where you can enter your location and find gas prices in your area, if your area is in the Baltimore Metro area.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-gasprices-map,0,4694622.htmlpage
UPDATE: The map is actually provided by GasBuddy.com, not the Baltimore Sun, but the Sun still makes lots of nice graphic tools.
Rebuilding Credit or Just Want a Good Deal? Check this out. July 12, 2008
Posted by Patti Shawgo in Credit, Interesting Stuff.1 comment so far
If you read and followed my advice back in October in the post Save a tree and your sanity! You have gone to www.optoutprescreen.com and stopped receiving most unsolicited credit offers in your snail mail box.
But now you are looking to open a credit card and don’t know what to choose. CardOffers.com is a database of credit card offers. For those that already have great credit, but are looking for a specifically geared product, like with the most rewards, 0% intro rate, etc. The site is an easy way to compare many options from top credit companies.
This is a fabulous, fabulous site if you are in the process of rebuilding credit. I am constantly asked where to go to get a credit card if your credit score is not so good right now and you are trying to build up positive credit. CardOffers.com lets you compare the annual fees, rate and read reviews of the creditor!
Remember, if you have a rocky credit history, you need to have open, active, on-time accounts to give you positive points. If you’ve had some bad experiences with your credit in the past, don’t just write it off. Start small, and start rebuilding.
Foreclosures Listings with Addresses from ForeclosurePoint.com June 30, 2008
Posted by Patti Shawgo in Local News, Real Estate.1 comment so far
While I don’t necessarily think that you are going to get the best deal ever by purchasing a foreclosure, there is definitely interest in finding foreclosure listings. And being that the purpose of my blog is to give the people the information they want and need about the local real estate and mortgage market, here you go.
www.foreclosurepoint.com There is a quick, free registration and then you are free to search foreclosure listings. Maryland and Pennsylvania are both available. Deleware and West Virginia are not. I tried it out and it is very, very easy to use. For the free registration it does not give you much information about the property beyond the address and “Zestimate” of value, but there’s an easy way to find out more than what they are telling you.
So after you have the address, step one, google it. Step two, go to the Maryland SDAT (http://www.dat.state.md.us/ click on Real Property Search) and you can get even more info (last transfer price, etc). When you google it, don’t include the zipcode and you generally get better results. What you are hoping to find is the lawyer’s office or auction house that is in charge of auctioning it off.
