This is from one of our favorite lenders, Jeannie Bolger at Nova Home Loans. Don’t despair! You can buy after a short sale or foreclosure. Plus Jeannie and her staff will help you repair your credit during the waiting period.

When can I buy again after a short sale or foreclosure? is a post written by The Phoenix Agents at Thompson's Realty. If you're reading this anywhere other than a feedreader (rss subscription) of ThePhoenixAgents.com, the site you're reading this on is guilty of copyright infringement.

Heather Barr is a Realtor and a happy workaholic. She eats more than someone her size ought to be able, and is a runner as a consequence. Her TiVo's full of spy thrillers, police procedurals and Whedonesque sci-fi.

Other posts you might like:

1. The difference between Bank Owned, Foreclosure, REO, and Short Sale
2. Foreclosure…Short Sale…What’s the difference?
3. Bank Owned, Foreclosure, Short Sale – What’s the Difference?

July 2011. This is an update and reprint of an article from June 2008. Reprinted because, sadly, it’s still relevant. Updated because things in real estate are always changing. This information pertains to metro Phoenix, Arizona in 2011. If you’re reading this from another locale or long after the publication date, please consult a professional in your area. We are Realtors, but we are not your Realtors; get local, professional advice.

REO, a.k.a. Foreclosure, a.k.a. Bank Owned — the bank has already foreclosed and the former homeowner is long gone. In Arizona, there is no “Redemption Period” after a foreclosure during which the former owner can reclaim the home. Once the bank has foreclosed on an owner, it’s game over. The bank owns this house outright and is selling it, almost always using a Realtor and an MLS listing. (There are extremely rare situations where a bank forecloses and doesn’t obtain clear title to the home. How rare? In a combined 13 years of practice in metro Phoenix, we at ThePhoenixAgents have seen this happen once.).

Pre-Foreclosure – Treat these as “Short Sales”.

Short Sale – In this case, a homeowner is trying to sell at today’s prices which will not completely pay off his/her mortgage, and seller won’t or can’t bring enough money to the closing table to pay off the mortgage. The seller’s lender will be left with a short payoff, hence the name.  If the seller can’t get his/her lender’s approval of the short sale, the sale will not happen.

Short Sales are sometimes great bargains for buyers, but these homes are frequently sold without any disclosures about condition, and are almost always sold As-Is. Buyers can inspect the house but Sellers/Lenders won’t do any repairs.

Then, there’s the Short Sale Waiting Game. Lenders are overwhelmed, they were never set up to operate a real estate brokerage in the first place, and will probably take a month or more to even acknowledge receipt of a Buyer offer. Total wait time can vary wildly depending on which bank you’re dealing with. What are “normal” wait times? I’ve seen 2 to 9 months, with a personal record of 13 months from offer to closing (30-day escrow).

Want More Info? See all posts in our Short Sale category, or our Foreclosure category. Get even more information, and search for area short sale and foreclosure homes.

The difference between Bank Owned, Foreclosure, REO, and Short Sale is a post written by The Phoenix Agents at Thompson's Realty. If you're reading this anywhere other than a feedreader (rss subscription) of ThePhoenixAgents.com, the site you're reading this on is guilty of copyright infringement.

Heather Barr is a Realtor and a happy workaholic. She eats more than someone her size ought to be able, and is a runner as a consequence. Her TiVo's full of spy thrillers, police procedurals and Whedonesque sci-fi.

Other posts you might like:

1. Bank Owned, Foreclosure, Short Sale – What’s the Difference?
2. Foreclosure…Short Sale…What’s the difference?
3. Bank bungles another short sale

In Maricopa County where Chris and Heather work as Realtors, the Notice of Trustee’s Sale is the official notice that a bank has begun foreclosure proceedings against a homeowner.  Here’s a run-down of the typical process as of today’s writing.

Remember, this information is meant for Maricopa County, Arizona homeowners, buyers and sellers. Your local market might behave very differently, so consult a professional in your area.

Usually, if a homeowner misses 3 to 4 mortgage payments, the bank that holds the mortgage may send the homeowner a Notice of Trustee’s Sale. It’s a 2 or 3 page document that states the original mortgage balance on the loan currently not being paid. It also lists the date scheduled for the foreclosure auction.  Sometimes the Notice is taped to the front door, sometimes I believe it’s sent certified mail.

Regardless of method of delivery, the message in the Notice of Trustee’s Sale is simple:  the homeowner has 90 days to come completely current on their mortgage, or make other arrangements with their lender, or the lender that holds the mortgage will foreclose, immediately and without further notice.

The foreclosure process in Arizona is very cut-and-dried. There’s no redemption period, there’s no additional notice required. You get your 90-day notice and that’s all you get.

Homeowners who receive a Notice of Trustee’s Sale may request a short sale or a loan modification, or a forbearance period, but the lender holding the mortgage is not required to agree to any of these. There’s only 1 thing that obligates the bank which holds the mortgage to stop the foreclosure: if the homeowner comes completely current on the mortgage — pays all back-owed payments, and pays off any/all penalties and fees imposed by the bank.

There are several circumstances where a Short Sale is the best of all possible uncomfortable options. Look for a post in the near future explaining why a Short Sale might be a homeowner’s best option.

What’s a Notice of Trustee’s Sale? is a post written by The Phoenix Agents at Thompson's Realty. If you're reading this anywhere other than a feedreader (rss subscription) of ThePhoenixAgents.com, the site you're reading this on is guilty of copyright infringement.

Heather Barr is a Realtor and a happy workaholic. She eats more than someone her size ought to be able, and is a runner as a consequence. Her TiVo's full of spy thrillers, police procedurals and Whedonesque sci-fi.

Other posts you might like:

1. I Got a Notice of Trustee’s Sale. What Now?
2. More Short Sale follies
3. Foreclosure…Short Sale…What’s the difference?

Theresa Boardman from the St. Paul Real Estate Blog wrote a great piece for Inman.com recently, about how confusing fair housing laws can be.

I support fair housing and I understand it and I understand why we have the laws. It is the language and the rules for following fair housing laws that I struggle with.

That language can be confusing. I cannot advertise a home as a family home or as a great place to raise a family, but on our multiple listing service homes are put in categories. They are labeled as single-family homes or multiple-family homes, condos or townhouses.

Some of my listings have two living rooms — in the historic homes we can call them parlors. The second living room is always called a "family room." I don’t understand why the term family room is not a violation of fair housing language.

We also use the term "master bedroom." I don’t even know where to start with that term. Are the other bedrooms for servants? Usually a master bedroom is the largest bedroom in the house. It doesn’t need to be called the master bedroom. It could be called the owner’s bedroom, or simply the biggest bedroom.

She’s got a couple of great points! And as usual, it’s written in a very readable, engaging style. Love that Theresa.

As a professional Singleton, I’ve never thought about it… but now that I do, the term “family room” is a little odd.  It’s a little exclusionary, isn’t it?

I don’t have a family. Should I not sit in my family room? Should I call it a sitting room? What if I lie down on the couch while I’m in it? Then is it a Lying Room? Or is it a Laying Room? Are Laying Rooms for taking naps or laying eggs?

This reminds me of comic Stephen Wright, the other funny language guy.

And now I’m reminded of the original funny language guy, Gallagher.

Getting back to Fair Housing laws…for a real explanation click on this fair housing post. For online crime stats, demographics and walkability scores, click our “ThePhoenixAgents” Moving page.

Fair housing laws is a post written by The Phoenix Agents at Thompson's Realty. If you're reading this anywhere other than a feedreader (rss subscription) of ThePhoenixAgents.com, the site you're reading this on is guilty of copyright infringement.

Heather Barr is a Realtor and a happy workaholic. She eats more than someone her size ought to be able, and is a runner as a consequence. Her TiVo's full of spy thrillers, police procedurals and Whedonesque sci-fi.

Other posts you might like:

1. Fair Housing Law
2. All about Federal Fair Housing law
3. West Valley housing boom

(image credit, StockExchange user macaruba)

We’ve all learned a new word recently: robo-signing.

The Big 5 Banks* are holding off on foreclosure proceedings in lots of US states because the employees in charge of signing off on the foreclosure documents have admitted to robo-signing up to 8,000 documents per month without reading each.

Robo-signing and the moratorium on foreclosures, so far as I can tell, doesn’t apply in Arizona. Foreclosures continue in Arizona at their usual pace. Why?

All the states so far affected by the robo-signing scandal are judicial foreclosure states. Arizona is not. In a judicial foreclosure state, the lender must file a lawsuit in court against the homeowner to begin the foreclosure proceedings. Those filing documents are the docs that were robo-signed.

In Arizona, homeowners don’t sign a Mortgage so there is no need for the lender to file a lawsuit to begin a foreclosure proceeding. Arizona homeowners sign a similar but slightly different document called a Deed of Trust. It’s the same idea as a Mortgage, just with an extra party inserted into the process. It’s a threesome: there’s a borrower (homeowner), a lender and a Trustee. The Deed of Trust system works just like a mortgage except in the cases of foreclosure.

The Deed of Trust that Arizona homeowners sign allows the lender to skip filing a foreclosure lawsuit if the homeowner gets behind in their mortgage. The lender simply mails or delivers to the homeowner a document called a Notice of Trustee’s Sale (a “NOTS” or “NoTS”, i.e. a foreclosure). Usually the lenders issue a NOTS after 3-4 missed mortgage payments.

The NOTS is the only notice of their intent to foreclose that Arizona lenders are legally required to provide. It states that the homeowner has 90 days in which to bring the mortgage payments 100% current – including any fees, fines or legal costs – or the Trustee will sell the home at foreclosure auction. On Day 91, the home is auctioned off, unless the homeowner contacted the lender and made other, mutually agreeable arrangements.

Trustees are often attorneys and sometimes the auction takes place in their offices rather than “on the courthouse steps” as in some other states. At least in Arizona, lenders are frequently unable to sell the home to anyone at the foreclosure auction. In that case the lender takes the house “back” and usually lists it for sale in the MLS through a Realtor as an REO property.

We at The Phoenix Agents track REO listings to help us visualize the overall health of the local real estate market. Want to see our stats? Click on over, to <here>.

The Big 5 Banks are: Bank of America, GMAC, JPMorgan Chase, Citi and Wells Fargo. The Big 5 is just what I call them; it’s not a real thing. That I know of.

Robo-signing is a post written by The Phoenix Agents at Thompson's Realty. If you're reading this anywhere other than a feedreader (rss subscription) of ThePhoenixAgents.com, the site you're reading this on is guilty of copyright infringement.

Heather Barr is a Realtor and a happy workaholic. She eats more than someone her size ought to be able, and is a runner as a consequence. Her TiVo's full of spy thrillers, police procedurals and Whedonesque sci-fi.

Other posts you might like:

1. Could “Produce the Note” Save Your Home?
2. Foreclosure Scams: groups offering to help may not be helpful
3. Mortgage Lender Sued, Pocketed $44 Million

A snippet of an article from CNN’s Money section:

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Mortgage rates continued to decline this week, plunging to the lowest level in decades, according to surveys from Freddie Mac and Bankrate.

Freddie Mac’s weekly report said the 30-year fixed rate slipped to 4.44% for the week ended Thursday, the lowest since the government-backed lender began tracking the rate in 1971. Last week’s rates stood at 4.49%, and a year ago it was at 5.29%.

Wow!  Some of our readers are doubtless old enough (like us) to remember the early 1980s rates of 14%, 16% and higher.

Here’s a nifty chart from The New York Times that gives a great visual of the history of home mortgage interest rates going all the way back to 1900!

What’s it mean to you, the home buyer?

If you’re buying, a 1-point drop in interest rates means you can buy more house. A lot more. Call or email us to help you figure out the numbers for your own situation. But here’s an example.

Let’s say you’re financing $150,000. . .

Let’s work it the other way.

Let’s say you’re trying to keep your payment at about $950 per month, for principal and interest (not including property taxes, HOA fees, etc).

Holy cow! If rates drop from 6.50% to 4.50%, the homebuyer who’s aiming for a monthly mortgage payment of $950 can suddenly buy $37,000 more house for the same monthly payment.

Given that mortgage rates change almost daily, but home prices change much more slowly, home buyers do themselves a favor if they watch long-term mortgage trends instead of focusing only on home prices.

What does this mean for home sellers?

If you’ve been considering a price drop lately, you might be able to put it off for a few more weeks. The rate drop means potential buyers’ money goes further. Of course whether you need  a price drop or not depends on your situation. Check with your Realtor. And ask yourself why you didn’t hire Chris & Heather, The Phoenix Agents at Thompson’s Realty in the first place. We’re awesome and here’s some of our clients who say so.

Mortgage rates hit the mid-4’s! is a post written by The Phoenix Agents at Thompson's Realty. If you're reading this anywhere other than a feedreader (rss subscription) of ThePhoenixAgents.com, the site you're reading this on is guilty of copyright infringement.

Heather Barr is a Realtor and a happy workaholic. She eats more than someone her size ought to be able, and is a runner as a consequence. Her TiVo's full of spy thrillers, police procedurals and Whedonesque sci-fi.

Other posts you might like:

1. Mortgage Rates Drop
2. Mortgage Rates to Rise in Spring
3. The 40 Year Mortgage. Why Not?

This is a reprint of an earlier post.

Federal Fair Housing law prohibits discrimination in the sale, rental or financing of housing because of:

• Race or Color
• National Origin (the country in which one was born)
• Religion
• Sex
• Familial Status (whether one has children or not, whether married or not)
• Handicap/Disability

Some states include additional groups, such as “sexual orientation”. You can check your state’s protected classes here. Fair Housing Law as it stands now is an amalgamation of various laws enacted during the late 1960s and mid 1970s.**

Notice that age is *not* on the list. Metro Phoenix has lots and lots of “active adult” communities which restrict the minimum age of their residents. As an aside, we used to call these retirement communities. Apparently we don’t retire anymore, we just get active.

The most common question I hear from buyers is “Is this a good neighborhood?”

What they’re really asking about of course, is either the crime rate or the type of people living in the area. Fair Housing law prevents me, your Realtor from telling you about the neighbors if that conversation might stray into discussing one of the protected classes. Most Realtors just don’t discuss the topic at all, for fear of violating Fair Housing law. It’s rumored that the FHA sends testers out to work with Realtors, secretly checking for violations of the law. True? I don’t know but I don’t want to find out.

Besides, my idea of “nice” or “good” neighbors might vary wildly from yours. Some people find the idea of living near folks of another race, religion or sexual orientation is a big problem. Most don’t care. My best advice to buyers in this scenario is to drive through and walk through the neighborhood yourself, at different times of the day, to see what you see. Talk to your potential new neighbors. Visit a grocery store, or a park in the area. See if you feel comfortable in the area.

As for crime, I can and will point you towards websites that list crime statistics, usually by ZIP code. I usually beg off answering the ‘crime’ question, because one person’s ’safe neighborhood’ is another person’s ‘fringe neighborhood’ is another person’s ‘hood.’

Housing not covered by the Federal Fair Housing law

• Single family housing not sold through a broker
• Owner-occupied housing of no more than 4 units (you own a duplex & rent the other side)
• Housing operated by private clubs which limit membership (co-op’s)

The first bullet above applies to For Sale By Owner homes. Selling it yourself? Discriminate all you want. I’m kidding of course, but the government can’t interfere if you want to sell your home yourself but intend to refuse to sell it to Australians born in New Zealand who practice the B’hai faith.

The second & third bullet points don’t apply much in metro Phoenix. But there are  some duplexes and fourplexes in our Valley, and even a few co-op’s down in South Scottsdale. No one can force you to rent the other side of your duplex to a family with 17 kids if you abhor children. Similarly, the co-op board reviews applicants who want to purchase a unit, and they make their own rules about who can move in.

For more information, see the Federal Fair Housing booklet and information about updates to Fair Housing law. Think you’ve been discriminated against in housing? The National Fair Housing Advocate Online can help. Note that all these resources apply to housing you buy. For help with rental situations, see the Arizona Residential Landlord Tenant Act.

Related Posts

• See all entries in the FAQ files here
• Click here to find online resources to check out neighborhoods, including demographics, crime statistics, HOA contact information, etc.

**As a side note, I do actually remember overhearing a mortgage banker telling my just-divorced Mother in the early 1970s that they couldn’t possibly transfer the mortgage on our home from “Mr. and Mrs.” to just “Ms.” because. . . well, she was a woman. . . don’t you see. . . she could get pregnant, and then how would she pay the mortgage? When you think about it, it’s really astounding that was only 40 years ago.

All about Federal Fair Housing law is a post written by The Phoenix Agents at Thompson's Realty. If you're reading this anywhere other than a feedreader (rss subscription) of ThePhoenixAgents.com, the site you're reading this on is guilty of copyright infringement.

Heather Barr is a Realtor and a happy workaholic. She eats more than someone her size ought to be able, and is a runner as a consequence. Her TiVo's full of spy thrillers, police procedurals and Whedonesque sci-fi.

Other posts you might like:

1. Fair Housing Law
2. Gilbert Rated 4th in the US for low crime rates
3. Affordable Housing in Tempe

This is a reprint of a post from summer 2009.

When I was a kid and we moved here in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the knee-jerk reaction answer to “When’s the monsoon?” was “August”.

With the heat island effect, it seems like the monsoon arrives earlier and lasts longer each year. In 2008, the National Weather Service announced they would date the monsoon season in Arizona from June 15 to September 30 each year. In prior years, the weather services had dated the beginning and ending of the monsoon season based on meteorological readings of the barometric pressure, temperature, humidity, etc.

According to Wikipedia:

The North American Monsoon (NAM) occurs from late June or early July into September, originating over Mexico and spreading into the southwest United States by mid-July. It affects Mexico along the Sierra Madre Occidental as well as Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah,Colorado, West Texas, and California.

Monsoon With a Dust Storm Chaser

originally posted on Kathy Anderson’s AZ Active Retirement Living blog

Monsoon Clouds Over Phoenix Skyline

image courtesy of The Downtown Phoenix Journal

Monsoon near Quartzite Arizona, 1976

photo courtesy of, and copyright by Douglas Stockdale

Video of Monsoon Storms

Here’s a really exciting video about Phoenix monsoons created by the local CBS news affiliate, channel 10 (hat tip to Kathy Anderson for linking me to it). The video clip is undated but it appears to be a retrospective of the 2008 monsoon season, which was one of the Valley’s 10 worst.

In the video, CBS reporters talk to a hi-rise condo owner in downtown Phoenix who shot video of the August 28 (2008?) storm as it swept across town, blew out the windows in his condo, and then proceeded to dump cherry-sized hailstones into his living room!

At about the 6:28 minute mark of the video, there’s a mind-boggling shot of a huge dust storm surging across the Valley. It reminded me instantly of the videos of the 2004 Indonesian tsunami.

Just the Facts, Ma’am

Are you the type who likes detailed statistical information instead of shocking videos? Here’s the National Weather Service explaining the meteorological in’s and out’s of monsoons. Local news AzFamily Channel 3 has some more great statistics on wind speeds and dollars’ worth of damages during monsoon season.

Related Posts and Information on Other Sites

• Chris Butterworth’s Moving Stills shows Phoenix area storms on various dates
• Additional Google images of monsoons
• About.com’s Monsoon gallery

All about the Phoenix monsoon is a post written by The Phoenix Agents at Thompson's Realty. If you're reading this anywhere other than a feedreader (rss subscription) of ThePhoenixAgents.com, the site you're reading this on is guilty of copyright infringement.

Heather Barr is a Realtor and a happy workaholic. She eats more than someone her size ought to be able, and is a runner as a consequence. Her TiVo's full of spy thrillers, police procedurals and Whedonesque sci-fi.

Other posts you might like:

1. When Is It Monsoon Season in Phoenix?
2. A Monsoon Hangover – Blooms!
3. Did you know? We’re huge.

Courtesy of a finance blog I read regularly, Dan Green at The Mortgage Reports. He explains mortgage rate locks better, and quicker than anyone I’ve ever encountered.

A Rate Lock Commitment is a bank’s promise to honor a specific mortgage rate for a specific period of time.  It’s a contract, of sorts, in which the lender says: “Provided you close on your loan in the next however-many days, we’ll make sure you get your locked rate.”

Want more information? Lots more? Visit the Consumer’s Guide to Mortgage Lock-Ins by HSH Financial Publishers. In addition, the Federal Reserve publishes a pamphlet about mortgage rate locks.

What’s a mortgage rate lock? is a post written by The Phoenix Agents at Thompson's Realty. If you're reading this anywhere other than a feedreader (rss subscription) of ThePhoenixAgents.com, the site you're reading this on is guilty of copyright infringement.

Heather Barr is a Realtor and a happy workaholic. She eats more than someone her size ought to be able, and is a runner as a consequence. Her TiVo's full of spy thrillers, police procedurals and Whedonesque sci-fi.

Other posts you might like:

1. All About Mortgage Rate Locks
2. How To Calculate Your Adjustable Rate Mortgage (ARM) Reset
3. Mortgage Lending – Fixed vs ARMs

Found this amusing little video this morning, courtesy of a company called XPLANE. They’re very much like Common Craft, who I love.

Clocking in at a little under 4 minutes, it explains the recent US financial meltdown simply, easily and with cute little stick figures and audio.  I think it must have been created last fall sometime, just as the first giant government bailout was announced.

Enjoy. Or not, depending on your political leanings and general anger level.

The Credit Crisis, in Video is a post written by The Phoenix Agents at Thompson's Realty. If you're reading this anywhere other than a feedreader (rss subscription) of ThePhoenixAgents.com, the site you're reading this on is guilty of copyright infringement.

Heather Barr is a Realtor and a happy workaholic. She eats more than someone her size ought to be able, and is a runner as a consequence. Her TiVo's full of spy thrillers, police procedurals and Whedonesque sci-fi.

Other posts you might like:

1. UK Bank Says Credit Crisis Overstated
2. Foreclosure Crisis Solved!
3. Financial Crisis (Still!) Related to Houses And Confidence

AWC means Active With Contingencies, at least in the metro Phoenix real estate market where we work. In plain English:

1. The seller accepted a buyer’s offer,
2. They’re under contract, but
3. There are contingencies that must be satisfied before the sale can close, and
4. The seller might accept backup offers.

Some common contingencies, in years past:

• the buyer has a home that must sell before they can buy a new property
• the seller instructed his/her Realtor to continue marketing the home, hoping for backup offers
• the seller accepted a buyer’s option offer to buy the home

However, in metro Phoenix today, the most common reason homes show up as AWC-I is that they are short sale homes with an accepted offer that’s awaiting bank approval. (edited August 2, 2009: 89% of the properties in the AWC-I status are short sales. If you see a property coded AWC-I there’s only a 1 in 10 chance that it’s not a short sale.)

How long does it take to wait for short sale approval? Depends on the bank(s) involved with the seller’s mortgages. Sometimes the seller’s lender approves the deal in only 60 to 90 days; sometimes the seller’s lender takes 6 to 9 months to approve the buyer’s purchase contract. Sometimes, the seller’s lender rejects the purchase contract, or demands different terms (issues a counteroffer).

Can a 2nd buyer offer more money than the 1st buyer, and get the home? (edited with more current info, Spring 2011) This sometimes happened in 2008 and 2009. As of mid-2010 and beyond this almost never happens. Bumping out another buyer is actually a serious breach of contract law and most Realtors will never do it. But banks are the ultimate “deciders” in a short sale situation, and banks frequently don’t act as if they feel bound by contract law. So, in theory a 2nd buyer could bump out a 1st buyer, but in day-to-day reality in metro Phoenix, this almost never happens.

Did you know AWC homes show up as Active (for sale) in many national real estate websites? AWC is a hybrid, in-between status that metro Phoenix uses that isn’t recognized by a lot of the national websites like Zillow and Trulia. It can be really frustrating for online shoppers to see homes marked Active that are really sold, and just awaiting final approval of the closing.

For more information, try reading some more articles in our Foreclosure category or our Short Sales category.  Ready to search for homes online? We offer the best access to the live MLS data, updated in real-time!  Search only foreclosure homes… search only short sale homes… or search all Phoenix-area homes.  Have additional questions? Contact me by email, phone, Facebook or Twitter and I’ll be happy to chat.

What Does AWC-I Mean? is a post written by The Phoenix Agents at Thompson's Realty. If you're reading this anywhere other than a feedreader (rss subscription) of ThePhoenixAgents.com, the site you're reading this on is guilty of copyright infringement.

Heather Barr is a Realtor and a happy workaholic. She eats more than someone her size ought to be able, and is a runner as a consequence. Her TiVo's full of spy thrillers, police procedurals and Whedonesque sci-fi.

Other posts you might like:

1. Short Sale contract language and the games Sellers play
2. Buyer Strategy using the Short Sale Addendum
3. The Importance of Earnest Money