Short Sale Website

written by Tom Witzel

Last Updated: Tuesday, March 09, 2010

I have created a new website with information to answer questions about short sales and to give you information concerning the advantages of a short sale versus a foreclosure. The website address is denvershortsaleanswers.com  Please contact me at 303-808-2206  with any questions you may have.

Distressed Homeowners Meeting

written by Tom Witzel

Last Updated: Tuesday, March 09, 2010

I am holding a distressed homeowners meeting on April 22nd from 7 to 8 PM at my office located at 9737 Wadsworth Parkway Westminster, CO 80021. The meeting will consist of a short power point presentation and the opportunity to hear Oliver Frascona a nationally recognized real estate attorney. If you or a friend or family member are behind on your mortgage payment the meeting  will be very informative as we will discuss the options you may have.  The meeting is free and is open to the public. Seating is limited so I am asking that you R.S.V.P. no later than April 16th by phone 303-808-2206.  I hope to see you there!

January Housing Numbers

written by Tom Witzel

Last Updated: Monday, March 08, 2010

The following information is from Metrolist.

© 1998-2010 Metrolist, Inc. All rights reserved.

You Tube

written by Tom Witzel

Last Updated: Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Check out the video links for some great information about RE/MAX! Also if you would like to visit RE/MAX's You Tube video page just go to www.youtube/remax.

http://www.youtube.com/remax#p/c/CAD9B8F331CBC39B/5/4ahrQpeBNjw

http://www.youtube.com/remax#p/c/CAD9B8F331CBC39B/0/fkuXvFBYXVU

Colorado Finance Housing Authority

written by Tom Witzel

Last Updated: Thursday, January 28, 2010

There are changes coming to the CHFA loan programs. CHFA loan programs help people purchase homes that don't have the 3.5% downpayment for a traditional FHA loan and meet certain requirements. The article from CHFA is listed below.

CHFA FirstStep and CHFA FirstStep Plus

Beginning February 1, 2010, CHFA is pleased to announce the CHFA FirstStep and CHFA FirstStep Plus programs for first time homebuyers and eligible veterans. Both programs have income and purchase price limits and are subject to the (CHFA reimbursable) Federal Recapture Tax. Both Programs require all tax exempt affidavits, disclosures, and three years of tax returns from the Borrower.

The CHFA FirstStep Plus also offers a CHFA Second Mortgage Loan for down payment and/or closing costs. The CHFA Second Mortgage Loan is for a maximum of 3 percent of the first mortgage; its rate and term mirror the first mortgage.

Upcoming Changes For All CHFA Borrowers

Effective for all reservations beginning February 1, 2010

· All CHFA Second Mortgage Loans are now subject to the RESPA requirements. Any CHFA Second Mortgage Loan must now have a Good Faith Estimate as well as a HUD-1A Settlement Statement. These forms and comprehensive instructions will be available on our website. This eNews supersedes the RESPA requirements regarding GFEs in the eNews released 12.31.09.

* Borrower minimum financial contribution will continue to be $1,000; however, now it must come from the Borrower's own funds. Gift funds will not be allowed. CHFA will require verification of funds in the Borrower's depository institution for no less than 60 days.

* Cosigners will not be allowed. For the past few years, CHFA has required that all Borrowers qualify on their own to purchase their home even if there were cosigners. To eliminate confusion, cosigners will no longer be permitted.

* Non-Traditional/Emerging Credit Reports must be developed by a credit reporting agency for all Borrowers with insufficient or non-traditional credit. CHFA will continue to serve the non-traditional credit Borrowers, but Participating Lenders will now be required to provide an actual alternative/emerging credit report from a credit reporting agency, as opposed to providing pay histories from individual creditors or a lender-developed alternative credit history.

* CHFA Risk Information Score Card (CHFA RISC). CHFA will continue to serve the 580-619 credit score Borrower; however, for all loans to Borrowers and Co-borrowers having credit scores between 580 through 619, a new credit score card must be completed and submitted to CHFA with the Compliance file. The CHFA RISC Score Card and instructions will be available on our website at www.chfainfo.com

The Denver Metro Area A Good Place To Buy A Home

written by Tom Witzel

Last Updated: Thursday, January 28, 2010

The folowing article was supplied by Dee Hibl of Colorado Mortgage Alliance.

10 Cities where it's smarter to buy

For people who want to own a home, the premium to buy-the spread between what they'd spend to rent and what they'd pay for a mortgage-is much lower than the 15-year average in many cities. To determine what cities are smart buys, Forbes magazine computed the premium and also identified locales where economists predict home prices will go up the most over the next five years.

Here are the top 10 cities the magazine chose as the best places to buy right now.

1. Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, Mass.
2. Charlotte-Gastonia-Concord, N.C.-S.C.
3. Chicago-Naperville-Joliet, Ill.-Ind.-Wis.
4. Cincinnati-Middletown, Ohio-Ky.-Ind.
5. Denver-Aurora-Broomfield, Colo.
6. Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, Minn.-Wis.
7. Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, Pa.-N.J.-Del.-Md.
8. Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton, Ore.-Wash.
9. San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, Calif.
10. Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, D.C.-Va.-Md.-W.V.

Source: Forbes, Francesca Levy (01/21/2010)

FHA Loan Changes

written by Tom Witzel

Last Updated: Thursday, January 21, 2010

The Federal Housing Administration is making some changes to the FHA loans they insure. The upfront mortgage insurance is increasing and FHA is now indicating that borrowers must have a minimum FICO score of 580 to qualify for an FHA loan with a minimum downpayment of 3.5%, if the FICO score is below 580 then the borrower will have to put down 10%. FHA is also reducing the amount sellers can contrubute to the buyers from a maximum of 6% to 3%. These changes are designed to reduce the amount of loan defaults and to raise FHA reserves that are mandated by congress.

FHA also wants conress to further clamp down on lenders, holding lenders liable if they underwrite loans violating FHA policies & standards. The department of Housing & Urban Development, FHA's parent agency will also ask congress to drop lenders from FHA programs when they violate FHA standards. FHA's hope is that the changes will reduce the number of loan defaults and bring their reserves back into line in the next fiscal year.

New York Federal Reserve

written by Tom Witzel

Last Updated: Monday, January 18, 2010

The following articel was emailed to me by Dee Hibl of Colorado Mortgage Alliance. I sure hope the information contained in this article is right. As always if you would like to contact me just call me at 303-808-2206 or send me an email at tom@tomwitzel.com.

January 14, 2010

New York Federal Reserve Bank President William Dudley said short-term interest rates may remain low for at least six months and possibly for as long as two years.

"Short-term rates are going to stay low for a considerable period of time to come," Dudley said yesterday, according to the transcript of an interview with PBS Television’s Nightly Business Report.

The policy of keeping borrowing costs low could remain in place "at least six months," Dudley said.

"It could be a year from now, two years from now. It’s going to depend on how the economy develops."

The Fed has held the benchmark rate for overnight loans between banks close to zero for more than a year to pull the economy from the worst recession since World War II and reduce joblessness that’s almost at a 26-year high. Policy makers on Dec. 16 affirmed a pledge to maintain the policy for an "extended period."

Before supporting an interest rate-increase, "I certainly need to see an economy that’s vigorous enough to bring the unemployment rate down, number one," Dudley said.

"And two, I would care about what’s going on in inflation."

"We’re doing very well on the inflation side," he said.

"We’re doing not well at all on the employment side."

Losses During Recession

The U.S. jobless rate held in December at 10 percent as employers cut 85,000 jobs, bringing losses during the recession to 7.2 million.

The Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, excluding food and energy costs, rose 1.4 percent in November from a year earlier. Officials prefer long-term inflation of about 1.5 percent to 2 percent.

Last month’s FOMC statement said officials expected inflation to "remain subdued for some time."

Dudley said that some reviews of plans by the Fed to end its purchases of mortgage-backed securities suggest "this is going to have a relatively small effect on the level of mortgage rates, something on the order of 0.5 to 0.25 percent."

The Fed is buying $1.25 trillion of mortgage-backed securities issued by housing-finance companies Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and federal agency Ginnie Mae. The central bank began the program in January 2009 and plans to end it at the end of March.

‘Big Consequence’

"If mortgage rates were to back up a lot and if that had a big consequence for the economy then we very well could rethink the issue about whether we wanted to buy more mortgages," Dudley said.

The Fed separately purchased $300 billion of Treasury securities from March through September 2009 and is buying, through March, $175 billion of corporate debt issued by government-backed Fannie and Freddie and the government- chartered Federal Home Loan Banks.

The Fed’s Beige Book business survey, released yesterday, said the economy improved in 10 of the central bank’s 12 districts last month. The previous Beige Book, released Dec. 2, showed improvement in eight districts.

"We are getting economic growth," Dudley said.

"That’s going to start translating to employment gains relatively soon, within a few months."

"We’ll definitely see job growth in 2010."

The "labor market conditions remained generally weak with modest wage increases appearing in just a few Districts," the Beige Book report said. Employers cut a greater-than-expected 85,000 jobs in December, the Labor Department said on Jan. 8.

AIG Bailout

Dudley also said the central bank acted in accordance with the law during the bailout of American International Group Inc. and was transparent in its handling of the firm.

"We have acted completely in the spirit of the law, letter of the law in everything that we’ve done," Dudley said.

"We had been transparent throughout this process."

The New York Fed was ordered yesterday by a House committee to provide Timothy Geithner’s e-mails, phone logs and meeting notes tied to the bailout of AIG. Geithner, now U.S. Treasury secretary, was president of the New York Fed when AIG was rescued.

November Housing Numbers

written by Tom Witzel

Last Updated: Tuesday, December 08, 2009

The following numbers are from Metrolist, it would appear that the average sold price for single family homes has increased by 1.42% over October and 9.46% over 2008.  The market seems to be gaining traction.  Mortgage rates are still very attractive however there is talk that we will start to see an increase in mortgage rates next year. If you are thinking about buying I believe you should act sooner rather than later.

The U.S. Treasury Sets New Rules For Short Sales!

written by Tom Witzel

Last Updated: Wednesday, December 02, 2009

The Unites States Treasury has set new rules for shorts sales thanks in a very large part to Dave Liniger, Chairman and co-founder of RE/MAX International. Mr. Liniger has met with Shaun Donavan and Senator Harry Reid. As a result of these meetings new guidelines were put into place for short sales that should make the short sale process much better for the seller, the buyer, the lender and the realtors involved in these transactions.

The new guidelines are as follows:

• Lenders must respond to Short Sale requests within 10 business days of receipt of the offer package.
• The seller will be released from all liability for repayment of the mortgage debt.
• Subsequently, the seller is entitled to a relocation incentive of $1,500, which will be deducted from the gross sales proceeds.
• The lender will be paid $1,000 to cover administrative & processing costs for a Short Sale or deed-in-lieu of foreclosure.
• The property must be listed with a licensed real estate professional who does regular business in the community where the property is located.
• The lender is prohibited from requiring, as a condition of approving the short sale, a reduction in the agreed upon real estate commissions.
• The investor will be paid a maximum of $1,000 for allowing a total of up to $3,000 in Short Sale proceeds to be distrubuted to subordinate lien holders or for allowing payment of up to $3,000 to subordinate lien holders.

If you or someone you know is in trouble with their mortgage contact me and I will do everything I can to help them during this difficult time.

Positive News

written by Tom Witzel

Last Updated: Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Denver Homes Resale's Rebound in October:  Metro Denver home resale's increased in October from September, but were down from October of last year, according to a Metrolist Inc. housing report released November 13, 2009

SMA Solar Plant to Bring Hundreds of Jobs to Denver: SMA Solar Technology AG, the world's largest manufacturer of a critical component in Solar power generation will invest about $20 million in its first North American manufacturing plant in Denver and is expected to open in the first half of 2010.

Cabela's Plans Gran Junction Store: Cabela's annonounced that it will build a 75,000 square foot store in Grand Junction at the Mesa Mall near U.S. highways 6 & 50. The store expects to open in the early part of summer 2010.

This is just  a sample of some positive news that I wanted to share with you today. Please call for more information.

Short Sales & Designations

written by Tom Witzel

Last Updated: Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Yesterday I completed a course to earn my Certified Distressed Proprerty Expert designation. One may ask what does this mean. Over the course of 2+ days I took a course that detailed the process of successfully completeing a short sale. Short sales have become a significant part of the real estate market and I am now more prepared to handle the short sale process. Did you know that if you have a security clearance (military or civilian) that your job could be in jepordy? This is something that most people don't know. I learned many other things by completing this course and if you or someone you know is in financial distress regarding their mortgage and they believe that foreclosure is there only way out, please contact me and I can share in detail how a short sale may work for you.