I Have Burger News Ta Tell You

OK, I have to admit something I never thought I would. I've found a burger BETTER than In-N-Out. Yes, it's true. I've been a staunch In-N-Out Burger guy since high school. But there's a hot, juicy new burger that's taken my carnivorous heart. It is the Single Cheese Burger at 5 Guys Burgers . What is 5 Guys, you might ask? It's an East Coast chain that is just coming out here. I had seen them many times in Florida, but never stopped by. What a dummy I am!

7945 Haven, Rancho Cucamonga,CA 91730

(909)941-9055

Here's where 5 Guys makes my beloved In-N-Out second best. First of all, when you walk in, you are greeted by giant boxes of peanuts. Because the line for burgers in literally out the door, you'll have plenty of time to eat a handful.And in the wonderful Haitian tradition, you are expected to toss your shells on the floor. Any place that lets you toss peanut shells on the floor is my kinda' joint.

But back to the burgers. Not only are they fresh ground and cooked, but the topping list is insane.You can get the regular lettuce/tomato/onion/pickle combo, BUT WAIT..THERE'S MORE! You can get sautéed mushrooms, jalapeños, A-1 Steak Sauce, green peppers and a bunch of other stuff I can't remember. I would be remiss if I didn't mention the fresh cut Cajun fries as well. I had it on good authority to be sure to try them. Let me just tell you that the velocity with which those fries were inhaled makes me appreciate the body of work my source put into their research.

So if you want to fall in love all over again, you might venture to the N/E corner of Foothill & Haven, in the Terra Vista Towne Center. The restaurant faces out onto Haven. The place will be easy to find. It will have a line out the door,and peanut shells everywhere.

ENJOY!

LAGUNA BEACH vs. SOUTH BEACH

As some of you might know, I was lucky enough to spend my childhood in Iowa. After years spent earning extra money shoveling snow in the winter, I am also lucky enough to spend my adult life in Southern California.My other favorite place, one that gains more in volocity the time, is Florida. Both have been hit hard by the foreclosure market. Yet, their recoveries are vastly different. California foreclosures are considered non-judicial , while Florida falls under judicial foreclosure mandates. Imagine that anything involving judges and attorneys might get bogged down with little in the way of a satisfactory outcome for anyone. As Florida continually provides reasons to invest passions, time and energy, let's hope it also recovers soon. Below is an excerpt from a Los Angeles Times article that hi lights this point:

By Alejandro Lazo and E. Scott Reckard, Los Angeles Times
November 5, 2010

..California and Florida had a lot in common during the housing industry's last boom-and-bust cycle.Both were overrun by buyers hooked on high-risk mortgages, speculators who helped push prices to historic peaks and builders who didn't know when to stop. When the bubble burst, the two states became leaders in mortgage defaults, price declines and tracts of unsold new homes.But in the last year or so, California's housing market, though still weak, has begun recovering, while Florida's remains on the critical list.

There are several reasons for the difference, but many experts say a key one is the approach to foreclosure.California keeps things less complicated and largely outside the courtroom, making it easier for banks to seize and resell homes. Like 22 other states, Florida requires that repossessions be approved by judges, which some argue provides extra protection for homeowners but can delay the process for months."The California process is very efficient, and that allows the state to work through the foreclosure morass much more quickly, and the result is a more stable housing market and economy," said Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody's Economy.com."Florida, in contrast, because of the process being so mucked up there, they still have a long way to go in working through their problem loans, and so their housing economy remains under significant pressure," he said.

Home prices in the two states tell the tale.California home sales and prices have tapered off since the boost from federal tax credits for buyers vanished in July, but home values are up considerably from the worst days of the bust. The median price for town homes, condominiums and single-family houses in September was $265,000, up 20% from the bottom in April 2009, according to MDA DataQuick.In Florida, prices in much of the state have struggled to find a bottom. The median price of a single-family home in Florida was $133,400 in September, a 48% decline from its June 2006 peak, according to data from the Florida Assn. of Realtors. Condominium prices have seen an even bigger plunge, with the statewide median hitting $83,400 in September, a 61% drop from its June 2006 peak.

Another closely watched indicator, the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index, shows prices in Los Angeles up 10% from their bottom, San Diego up 14% and San Francisco up 21%. In Miami, home prices have remained relatively flat, up 2% from their bottom, and Tampa-area prices have yet to stop falling.The different types of foreclosure systems have come into focus in recent weeks after major lenders acknowledged that in some states where a court order was required to seize a home they had employed so-called robo-signers, who attested to the accuracy of foreclosure documents without reading them.

Those improprieties prompted some major banks to halt foreclosure proceedings temporarily, sparked investigations by state and federal agencies and led to calls for a national foreclosure moratorium, which the Obama administration has resisted.The paperwork fiasco brought to light a cold fact: Calling in a judge slows the repossession machine.The average borrower in default lost the home after failing to make mortgage payments for 25 months in Florida and the other states where court approval is required for repossessions, according to a study by Amherst Securities Group. The average is 19 months in California and other so-called nonjudicial states.The process could be even faster in states like California, but banks have been slowed by moratoriums, loan-modification programs and their own efforts to manage the number of properties reaching the market....

BANK OF AMERICA'S BAD AIM

"He Who Forecloses From A Glass House, Should Be Careful With The Stones He Throws"

OK, so I'm not as artful as some when it comes to proverbs. Below is another article about BofA's mismanagement of their short sale and REO properties. My last blog entry dealt with a very similar aspect regrading GMAC, so I won't bore you with repeating the details. Please have a look at that as well. Being in the industry that I am, I deal with all of these fine & upstanding institutions on a daily basis. I think it's safe to say that almost to a person, those of us trying to work with BofA's REO and short sale departments find it to be the most intolerable, mis-managed, perhaps less than forthcoming company out there.

Below is an article from today's Los Angeles Times that politely sheds a little light on what arrogance can do to a company:

By E. Scott Reckard, Los Angeles Times
October 2, 2010

Bank of America freezes evictions in 23 states
The bank cites concerns over whether its foreclosure paperwork was handled properly.
By E. Scott Reckard, Los Angeles Times

Citing concerns over whether its foreclosure paperwork was handled properly, Bank of America Corp. on Friday put evictions on hold in 23 states — joining two rivals that have taken similar steps.

The freeze is taking place in states where courts have jurisdiction over foreclosures, Bank of America said. It will not apply to California and 26 other states where foreclosures usually take place without a court order, but the action could put added pressure on banks to ease back on foreclosures more broadly amid high unemployment and continued turmoil in the housing market.

State Assemblyman Ted Lieu, a Torrance Democrat who has written a series of mortgage-related bills, said a moratorium on foreclosures might be appropriate even though California doesn't require court orders before homes are seized.

"I've been thinking perhaps we should start calling for [a moratorium] in California," said Lieu, co-author of SB 1137, the 2008 law requiring lenders to attempt to contact borrowers and to document that they tried before foreclosing. "My suspicion is that the same folks who are doing false signings in other states are likely doing the same thing here with regard to SB 1137's requirements," he said.

Detroit-based Ally Financial Inc. halted evictions in the 23 states last month after the head of Ally's document processing team acknowledged in a deposition that he signed thousands of affidavits certifying that foreclosure paperwork was correct even though he hadn't read the documents.

JPMorgan Chase & Co., the giant New York bank, suspended its evictions this week after problems surfaced with signatures on some of its affidavits.

Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America — which became the largest mortgage customer-service provider when it acquired Countrywide Financial Corp. in 2008 — followed suit Friday.

"To be certain affidavits have followed the correct procedures, Bank of America will delay the process in order to amend all affidavits in foreclosure cases that have not yet gone to judgment in the 23 states where courts have jurisdiction over foreclosures," the bank said in a statement.

The affidavits are required to be filed in court when banks make motions for summary judgment to obtain foreclosure orders from judges.

The bank didn't disclose how many borrowers were affected by the eviction freeze.

Also on Friday, California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown said he would require Chase to prove that it is complying with California foreclosure laws, included a requirement that loan servicers meet with homeowners to explore loan modification options before seizing houses. He previously demanded the same of Ally.

The banks have said they believe the information in the affidavits — such as how much is owed and when the mortgages went into default — is accurate even if the affidavit signers didn't take the time to read them thoroughly because of the glut of foreclosures.

Ally, formerly known as GMAC, includes Ally Bank and Residential Capital. It is the fourth-largest originator of mortgages and the fifth-largest mortgage servicer. Chase is third in both categories.

The largest California-based bank, Wells Fargo & Co. in San Francisco, is the No. 1 mortgage originator and the second-largest servicer, after Bank of America.

Wells Fargo issued a statement saying it was satisfied that "the affidavits we sign are accurate," but it stopped short of certifying that they were all properly signed.

"We audit, monitor and review our affidavits under controlled standards on a daily basis. We will stand by our affidavits and, if we find an error, we will take the appropriate corrective action," Wells said.

scott.reckard@latimes.com
Copyright © 2010, Los Angeles Times

PLEASE FLIP ME OFF

Because the blame game can be so easily re-written to suit a politicians needs, "flippers" are now the scourge of the earth. While I'd like to thank them for taking my place in that line as a real estate/mortgage broker, the fact that these folks are now being blamed for the ills of the market crash, and the terrible idea that they may bring prices back up now (the nerve of them sustaining a market), are mis-informed at best. And if your first name has the abbreviation Sen. or Rep. or Attny.Gen. ahead of it, wake up *Editor's note* If your name is Sen. Bob Dutton, thank you for being a visionary and not a reactionary. Keep up the good work.

"Flippers" are the folks, generally mom-n-pop contracting businesses, that use their own money to purchase the nastiest of the nasty repo'ed homes and fix them up. Let me take a moment to dispel a rumor here:

Rumor: When you bid on a repo, you probably won't get it because the evil flippers are going to outbit you and pay cash. WRONG. Generally flippers aren't interested in the home you want to move into. They are interested in the home you can't move into. If you've been out house hunting and walked into a home that looks like the "after" photo of a nuclear test site and smells like a sewage treatment plant, you couldn't get a loan on that home if you wanted. Your lender is extremely leery of what they deem as Health and Safety Standards. BUT, a flipper is paying cash...his own cash...in full... to buy this lil' gem, put thousands more into it to make it habitable, and then put it back on the market.

If you live in a neighborhood near a house that looks like it belongs in an Appalachian hollow more than Suburbia,USA, you should HOPE a flipper buys that house. In fact, you should take him a plate of cookies and coffee to keep him full and caffeinated. There are tens, if not hundreds of thousands of these uninhabitable homes on the market right now. And over the next few years, there's many more to come. Some how the idea that a person is willing to risk their own money (amounts that have a comma and at LEAST two digits to the left of it), fix up a home while lessening blight has become a bad thing. And it's bad because heaven forbid, that person wants to make a profit on it. The gall of a person wanting to be a capitalist! Wherever did that idea come from?

So next time you walk into a house that smells freshly painted, has new carpet, a shiny air conditioning unit in the back, a freshly sodded yard, and/or an electric panel that won't shoot an arc through the entire house when you flip a switch, thank a flipper.

FEARED FLOOD OF FORECLOSURES IN CALIFORNIA MAY BE AVERTED-- latimes.com

This article just broke in the L.A. Times:

Feared flood of foreclosures in California may be averted -- latimes.com

While we are far from seeing a healthy market, the beginning has now started.

POSITIVE NEWS EXPECTED IN HOUSING REPORTS - MarketWatch

This just in from MarketWatch:
Positive news expected in housing reports - MarketWatch

HOUSING UPTURN IN CALIFORNIA-- latimes.com

The link below sheds some light on the appreciation in the local market.

Housing upturn occurring in some parts of Southern California, data show -- latimes.com

SHORT SALES, FICO SCORES AND YOU

FICO scores have been a mystery since they were first unveiled many years ago. Toss in today's short sale market, and neither Houdini nor any self-respecting Las Vegas odds maker would try to predict what your scores may be. However, I just read the article below in this morning's L.A. Times. I thought it was very insightful:

NATION'S HOUSING

Mortgage problems are walloping Americans' credit scores

Late payments, delinquencies, short sales and foreclosures are on the rise -- and so are the number of borrowers seeing their credit scores plummet, according to scoring company VantageScore Solutions

By Kenneth R. Harney

September 13, 2009

Reporting from Washington - When you do a short sale of a house, or modify the mortgage, is there much of an effect on your credit score? What if you walk away from the mortgage altogether?

A scoring company created by the three national credit bureaus -- Equifax, Experian and TransUnion -- has some eye-opening numbers. VantageScore Solutions, whose risk-prediction scores are now being used by some of the largest mortgage companies and banks, has found that the way consumers handle their mortgage problems can have profound effects on their credit scores.

For example, loan modifications that roll late payments and penalties into the principal debt owed on the house can actually increase borrowers' scores modestly. Refinancings of underwater, negative-equity mortgages -- which the Obama administration's Making Home Affordable program offers through government-controlled Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- may have little or no negative effect on scores, even though the homeowners might have been tottering on the edge of serious delinquency before refinancing.

The Vantage credit score, the primary competitor to the long-dominant FICO credit score, rates borrowers on a scale range of 501 (subprime, the highest risk) to 990 (super-prime, the lowest risk). Unlike Fair Isaac Corp.'s FICO scoring system, whose scores can vary by 50 to 100 points based on which bureau supplied the underlying credit data, Vantage scores are about the same for each consumer.

When homeowners negotiate a short sale with lenders, they sometimes assume that there will be relatively little effect on their scores. After all, the loan was successfully paid off, there was no foreclosure, and the lender voluntarily agreed to accept a lower balance than was owed.

But according to VantageScore researchers, short sales can trigger big drops in credit scores. Sarah Davies, senior vice president of analytics, said a homeowner with an excellent score of 862 might plummet 120 to 130 points after a short sale.

Although it's true the lender may lose less money through a short sale compared with a foreclosure, "it's still a derogatory event," Davies said. The full debt was not repaid and the lender lost money.

What happens when borrowers walk away from their mortgage debts altogether -- the so-called strategic defaults that have become commonplace in some large markets such as in California? They should expect 140- to 150-point hits to their scores, plus negative marks on their credit bureau files for as long as seven years.

People who file for bankruptcy protection covering all their debts (mortgage, credit cards, auto loans, etc.) will get hit with an average 355- to 365-point drop in their scores. Bankruptcies remain on borrowers' credit bureau files for 10 years.

With all the mortgage delinquencies, short sales and foreclosures experienced by U.S. consumers in the last couple of years, has there been a deterioration of average scores across the board? Absolutely.

For example, roughly 36.6 million of the 213 million consumers tracked by the three national credit bureaus in the first quarter of 2008 had Vantage scores above 900 -- the super-prime credit rung. That select group represented 17.2% of the country's consumers.But by the end of the second quarter of this year, just 15.4% -- 33.3 million out of 216.9 million individuals' files -- were left among the elite. By credit industry standards, that's huge.

More Americans' scores are slipping into the worst credit category as well. In the third quarter of 2006, 34.4 million consumers were in the lowest segment -- 16.6% of 206.9 million individuals. But by the second quarter of this year, 18.3% of all files were in that category -- 39.8 million consumers out of 216.9 million.

Most of these changes -- fewer people with excellent credit, more people in the lowest brackets -- have been caused by late payments on home mortgages, serious delinquencies, short sales and foreclosures, according to VantageScore researchers.

But the bottom-line good news about scores is that homeowners facing financial stress can experience minimal dings to their credit if they contact their loan servicer or lender early in the game -- when they first discover that they may have trouble making their monthly payments -- and take the first steps toward a loan modification or refinancing.

"Start that conversation early," said Barrett Burns, a former lender and now chief executive of VantageScore. If you wait and fall several payments behind before seeking a modification, "you can lose 240 points on your score" and damage your ability to obtain credit for years.

kenharney@earthlink.net

Distributed by the Washington Post Writers Group.

DOES THIS GIVE YOU GOOSE BUMPS TOO?

Don’t you hate when the people around you talk and joke during The National Anthem? I sure do. To me, those are both signs of rudeness and stupidity at the least, and more than likely disrespect toward our country. I officiate high school basketball, and have the privilege of hearing The National Anthem 30-50 times a year. Sometimes, it’s a small child singing totally off key, sometimes it’s the standard Whitney Houston-Super Bowl version, and sometimes it’s an amazing version done by the home team’s pep band(Upland High’s gets me every time!). There are two things in common with every version. One is I get the goose bumps staring up at the flag on the wall just as the impossibly difficult part begins to build.. Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave.O'er the land of the free … It’s one of those moments that instantly makes me proud to be American.
Unfortunately, the other thing that invariable happens is the good folks in the stands with ADD like symptoms (the ones still eating that big tub of Orville Redenbacher’s), feel compelled to yell out, whistle or otherwise draw attention away from the reason we all stand and face the flag. Because let’s face it, yelling out..YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!! is far more important than doing something we so seldom do enough of, taking a moment to share in our patriotism of this country.
So next time you are at a game, do me a favor. Save your yelling until The Anthem is over. You’ll have plenty of time to tell me how bad I suck DURING the game.

WHY WE NEED MORE INVESTORS IN THE MARKET & WHY FLIPPING IS GOOD

We need to have more investors in the market and we need them flipping properties. There, I said it. I know it won't be long until the riotous crowds start descending on me. But before they do, let me explain. Investors aren't the scourge of the earth. Well, at least not most of them. They are looking to buy an under-valued asset. No different than a stock or a bond fund. And here's why investors are helpful in this market:
1. There are hundreds of thousands of REO and short sale properties on the market. Values will not be going up until demand at least equals supply. In the ever tightening lending markets, investors fill a void by paying cash. It's very true that they may take a potential buyer out of a transaction, but that buyer should be putting offers in on multiple homes, thereby taking two properties off the market.
2. Investors buy up a lot of the very distressed (read: completely trashed) properties. These are units that, due to health and safety issues, can not be financed anyway. Investors buy these up cheap, and fix the inherent problems. At this point,the unit is now gone from total disrepair to some form of turn key for a buyer. That subsequent buyer will get into a home and not have to spend thousands doing repair work they would other wise need to. And I'm pretty sure the neighbor living next door doesn't mind a lawn that actually has grass and windows not made of plywood.
3. Investors buy/sell or buy/rent repeatedly. One by one, that gets more properties out of the hands of the REO listing agents and non-responsive banks we've all grown so fond of dealing with.
When you put all of that together,investors help stabilize the market. Since I see the agitated crowd starting to mill outside now, I will make one more point before the horse mounted,riot police descend. In an effort to quell investor purchases/flips ,FHA, Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac(the latter two having made repeated, brilliant decisions to the point of government receivership) have mandated that no property can get a loan on it if title has changed within the previous 90 days. In fact, an offer can not even be written prior to the 90th day. Hmmmmmm. That law might have worked really well 3-6 years ago, BEFORE the appreciation horse left the barn.THAT'S the time investors needed to be reigned in. THAT was the time when demand far outstripped supply. THAT'S when everyone was on Easy Street. It would have made great sense to calm the market by making "flippers" hold their investments for 90 days. But in the market today, it makes no sense. If your house is worth less that it was 3 years ago, raise your hand. 1...2...1,453,312. I count fast. The point is, why take away a tool that can actually help stabilizeand start to appreciate an asset that you are either living in, or hope to buy? I think it's time to conclude this post. It's some what unnerving to see yourself burned in effigy.

PALM SPRINGS (MOVIE COLONY) POOL HOME

***JUST LISTED***

384 Valmonte Sur,Palm Springs(Movie Colony)

4 Bed/2.75 Bath/2700 Sq.Ft.

$795,000

Click here for more information

HVCC-HOW TO DELAY YOUR LOAN IN 1 EASY LESSON

What does HVCC stand for, and what it is? Well, it stands for Home Valuation Code of Conduct. And it's Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac's (this does not appy to FHA) attempt at sending appraisers to their rooms for being bad. The assumption is that because lenders/brokers and appraisers had an actual working relationship, that appraisers would risk their licenses and give that lender the value needed to do a loan for a client. Did that happen? Of course it did. There's bad appraisers, just like there's bad lenders,bad post men and so on. But appraisals are an opinion of a range of value, most generally given by a licensed,qualified appraiser. The guy walking around your house with a little wheel on a stick isn't Bernie Madoff. And he probably didn't cause the real estate bubble to burst. But he is a convenient scape goat. Until HVCC became a reality, you most often had an appraisal ordered by either your lender or mortgage broker. And yes, there was this terrible thing called a rapport established. How dare two professionals try to work together to get your appraisal done. In my years, that rapport didn't lead to the 3 walled hovel down the street getting appraised at $400,000. It led to things like an appraiser meeting a client after normal hours,looking at comparable sales to establish a general value before the appraiser took your check for $350, and things of that nature.
But now in the infinite wisdom of those with the least amount of it, when you order an appraisal, it is given to an appraisal management company. The theory is that by using an intermediary, those bad ole' appraisers won't be able to get away with their shenanigans anymore. 'See the management company will then contact an appraisers on their "list". The appraiser may be from the local area...maybe not. And almost assuredly, the management company's knowledge of that appraiser is the resume he turned in, and a license search. The management company will then charge you between $400-$500 in ADVANCE...on your credit card. Because obviously, an appraiser couldn't be trusted with collecting a check at the door. Now here's where it gets very interesting.
Remember in the good old days an appraisal cost around $350? Well now, for the right to baby sit appraisers, the management companies charge you more. And the appraiser(who, by the way, is generally self-employed) may get $200-$250 of that fee, for doing exactly what he used to get $350 to do. Hmmmmm. Guess what quality of work and responsiveness you may see? And it gets better. Because lenders don't all use the same management companies....here it comes......they probably won't accept the same appraisal. Which means, if you decide you want to go to a different lender, you have to pay all over again. In the words of Homer Simpson....DOHHHHH!!!
The one silver lining in all of this. A bill, H.R. 3044, granting an 18 month moratorium on the wonderful world of HVCC has just been introduced... Click Here to read an article on it. Hopefully it will get appraisers out of their Time Out Chairs and back to doing appraisals like they should.

4th of JULY IN UPLAND

OK, I can admit it. Nothing makes me forget I'm an adult faster than a 4th of July fireworks show at Upland High School. Summer, family, BBQ'ing and colorful stuff blowing up above my head. The only thing better than hearing grown men & women say "Ooohhhh" and "Ahhhhhhh", is hearing the same thing from children.

That's why I will be at Upland High School for the annual 4th of July spectacular. Upland has a wonderful sense of community and that's always apparent at this gathering. It's the most popular, one day event in town. So come early. Parking can be tough. You can park at Upland High School, or along many of the businesses on Foothill Blvd. Click here for more information.

WANT TO TEST DRIVE YOUR HOME? GET A HOME INSPECTION

There's one part of a real estate transaction that often gets overlooked. Or worse yet, in the interest of saving $300-$400, isn't done at all. That is a home inspection. Sometimes, it's confused with an appraisal. An appraisal is a valuation of a property done by an appraiser, and generally done in conjunction with a purchase money loan or a refinance. Its purpose is to give an accurate value range to the lender and client. In California, appraisers are governed by the OREA .

A home inspection is a valuation of property condition. It is generally done as part of a buyer's contingency period for investigating a property being purchased. Basically, it gives a buyer the opportunity to test drive the home they are about to buy. A lender does not require a home inspection. A very important note here. In California,as in most states, there is no formal licensing requirement for home inspectors. Kinda' scary,huh? However, there is a recognized association that oversees those inspectors with a greater level of education and commitment. It is the NAHI.





So what do you get for your $300-$400? Well, you get a general overview of a property's condition from crawl space to rafters. Keep in mind that an inspector may not be a contractor, and isn't being paid for those services. Instead, consider him a trained eye looking for hidden problems. Those problems can range from electrical, water leakage, pressure, health and safety to grading, plumbing and a host of other potential issues.
Even in a normal real estate market, almost any(including new) properties have some issues. And if your current market is like ours in The Inland Empire area of Southern California, most of the properties you are seeing are "distressed". That's a polite word for beat up.
So why would it be the best $300-$400 you loose? Well, if your home inspection reveals major problems you don't want to inherit, or the seller won't agree to fix, you have a right to cancel your contract. And keep in mind, no seller is bound to fix anything you discover.
If you do happen to live in this general area, I do recommend an inspector for you to consider.
His name is Jim Turner, and you can visit his website by clicking here. And to see what a home inspection looks like, click here .

CAMB, CAFFEINE & KEY CHAINS

I went to the CAMB Expo yesterday at the Anaheim Convention Center. I went for two reasons; to see what vendors were still in the game, and for one seminar in particular. While not normally a big convention guy (although the FHA key chains will hopefully remind selling agents to return the keys to the lock boxes from whince they came), it was refreshing to see and hear that familiar business buzz again. Lenders, title, escrow and supporting vendors were talking the talk. While smaller in number, I think the vendors there realize we've all made it through a very trying time...a rather polite way to put it.

More valuable than the nifty scratch pads though, was the seminar series that was available all day. The one I found most valuable was the "Red Flag",or FACTA, Compliance seminar. While a 9:00 a.m. compliance seminar on anything isn't a replacement for caffeine, it was incredible helpful. Brad Kelso of Informative Research was the presenter and did a great job of outlining this new federal mandate. In short, by 8/1/09, any of us that are involved in any kind of consumer lending (real estate related or not), must have a policy & procedures manual in place. So on top of sustaining your business, mowing your yard, and the upcoming camping trip to El Capitan State Beach (sorry, self-indulgent moment there), we have to spend the time to work up a P & P manual. But all is not to worry. As part of his presentation Brad showed us where to go on his site for help.Click here. I have to say that, as of now, Forefront Mortgage has not used Informative research. Based on the presentation and on line tool box, we will. Brad is also emailing out the Power Point presentation in the coming days. I will post that in a follow up.

HIGHLAND POOL HOME-REGULAR SALE

***JUST LISTED***

1565 Central Avenue,Highland

4 Bed/2 Bath/1330 Sq.Ft.

$165,000

Click here for more information

$8000 TAX CREDIT CLARIFIED

President Obama and HUD today clarified and expanded the use of the $8,000 tax credit for first time home buyers, formally called The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 .
Below is a press release from Realtor magazine. This is great news for those trying to take advantage of this buyers' market.






Source: Robert Freedman, REALTOR® Magazine Online


HUD: Tax Credit Can Be Used on Closing Costs
FHA-approved lenders received the go-ahead to develop bridge-loan products that enable first-time buyers to use the benefits of the federal tax credit upfront, according to eagerly awaited guidance from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on so-called home buyer tax credit loans that was released today.

Under the guidance, FHA-approved lenders can develop bridge loans that home buyers can use to help cover their closing costs, buy down their interest rate, or put down more than the minimum 3.5 percent.

The loans can't be used to cover the minimum 3.5 percent, senior HUD officials told reporters on a conference call Friday morning.

Thus, buyers applying for FHA-backed financing with an FHA-approved lender that offers a bridge-loan program can get a bridge loan to bring down the upfront costs of buying a home significantly but would still have to come up with the minimum 3.5 percent downpayment.

There remain many sources of assistance for buyers needing help with the 3.5 percent downpayment, including many state and local government instrumentalities and nonprofit lenders.

In addition, some state housing finance agencies have developed their own tax credit bridge loan programs, so buyers in states whose HFAs offer such programs can monetize the tax credit upfront to cover all or part of their downpayment. These programs are separate from what HUD announced today.

The first-time homebuyer tax credit was enacted last year--and improved upon earlier this year--to help encourage households to enter the housing market while interest rates are low and affordability is high. The credit is worth up to $8,000 and is available to households that haven't owned a home in at least three years. The credit does not have to be repaid, and is fully reimbursable, so households can get their credit returned to them in the form of a payment.

Learn more about the credit, including how to apply for it this year even if you've already filed your taxes, at REALTOR.org.

SCAMS & SHAMS

I was looking around the California Association of Realtors (C.A.R.) website this morning, and found this flier on Foreclosure/Short Sale Scams. Unfortunately, because of the vast number of distressed properties here in Southern California, there are more scam artists popping up every day. Before you do anything with a solicitation , I strongly encourage you to call your lender directly. They are the ones making the decisions on the money they lent. You don't need to pay someone else to negotiate for you. At best, you'll spend money you didn't need to in getting the same result. And you could end up spending a LOT of money on nothing at all.

HERE WE GO

Welcome to my first blog and I'm glad you stopped by. In the weeks and months to follow, I hope to bring some unfiltered insight into the rapidly changing world of residential real estate and mortgage. I've been lucky enough to call this industry home for some 25 years now. I started with a full head of hair and all my sanity. As you can see, experience comes at a price!


I hope you will become a regular reader and pass my link on to others. My company website offers lots of helpful ideas, calculators and a full MLS search feature. Click here for a look .

If you have any suggestions or ideas you'd like to see here, please don't hesitate to email me.