Op Ed

Pets abandoned in foreclosure homes

Central Phoenix

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A shocking number of dogs and cats have been rescued from local foreclosure and short sale homes where their owners have abandoned them, leaving them to starve to death. Your donation of food and supplies will help to save the lives of these homeless pets who have been rescued by Lost Our Home Pet Foundation. [...]

8 December 2010 Read the full article →

Bother your Realtor. Please.

Buyer Help

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Recently a consumer visited our website to search the MLS and submitted an online question about a home she found there. I sent her our standard “thanks for visiting our site, let us know if we can help” email. This is the rest of the email exchange between she and I. Thank you for getting [...]

24 October 2010 Read the full article →

Wells Fargo allows 1 shortsale extension

Mortgages

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Wells Fargo is no longer granting more than one extension for homeowners to complete a short sale. “We do allow for one foreclosure postponement provided we have a short sale in hand that has been approved, the buyer has proof of funds of financing approved, and the short sale can close within 30 days of [...]

5 October 2010 Read the full article →

Did the homebuyer tax credit cause false buyer demand?

In The News

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There are some talking heads claiming that the federal $8,000 first-time home buyer tax credit caused a lot of fake demand for houses earlier this year and the sharp drop in July home sales was because the tax credit ended. It’s important to distinquish the difference between false demand and pushed-forward demand. The tax credit [...]

4 September 2010 Read the full article →

I’ve had it up to my eyeballs with banks

Foreclosures

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Really, I’m 110% over the bank owned REO thing. I’ve had it up to my eyeballs with banks and their stupid requirements. I swear that lately the big banks and Fannie Mae, and especially the Realtors who work for them, are trying to make it hard to buy their properties. Here’s a mere sampling of [...]

1 September 2010 Read the full article →

Not all banks are utterly moronic

Foreclosures

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Last December our buyer clients found a house online that they loved in a big way. It was priced at $2,195,000 and their budget was $1,800,000 max. It was a short sale, headed for the foreclosure auction block in 2 days. We saw it in person. They fell in love. I checked the tax records:  [...]

28 June 2010 Read the full article →

Sometimes, banks amaze me

Short Sales

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(picture credit to Stock Exchange user cGarbiano) Every once in a (very great) while, the banks selling houses amaze me, in a good way. Two days ago we got an approval of a short sale from the seller’s lender. It took two weeks and 1 day. Astounding! We usually warn our clients they’ll wait 3 [...]

25 June 2010 Read the full article →

Bank of America’s No Job, No Payment Plan

In The News

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(picture credit to StockExchange user brokenarts) This is an opinion piece. From the Charlotte Observer: Bank of America wants to give struggling mortgage customers who are collecting unemployment benefits up to nine months with no mortgage payment. That’s right. Zero payment. Customers would have to agree that, if they haven’t found a job within the [...]

18 June 2010 Read the full article →

Lenders Behaving Madly

Buyer Help

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An illustration of just how ridiculous lender requirements have become, direct from an email written by a loan officer and sent to loan specialist Rob Chrisman: “Rob – The following is an actual underwriting condition from a large wholesale lender which is known for having the best wholesale pricing for conforming loans. (As background, the [...]

27 February 2010 Read the full article →

Listing Price: What Matters, What Doesn’t

Seller Help

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(this article is reprint) I was watching one of those HGTV shows not too long ago. Flip That House, or Sell This House or one of those. The show featured a novice investor who bought and rehabbed a 1970’s tract home. She managed an amazing transformation of the entire house. She opened up the kitchen [...]

25 February 2010 Read the full article →

Realtors Make a Ton of Money!

Op Ed

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Yeah, not really. Or at least not usually. And the potential for making a bundle is accompanied by the risk of making zippo. I’ve written before about the public’s misconception that all Realtors make a ton of money for very little work. Our broker Jay Thompson, the Phoenix Real Estate Guy, wrote about Realtor income [...]

15 November 2009 Read the full article →

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