The banks have been holding off on foreclosing on many homes due to the paperwork snafu’s. Recently, Bank of America has stated foreclosure proceeding again and we expect a large increase in inventory in 2012. But of course, the Real Estate market in Phoenix has been anything but predictable in the past few years. Between now and when inventory increases there is a hot market for many sellers!!

If you bought your home in Glendale, Peoria, Surprise or another Metro Phoenix area during 2004-2005 and overpaid you may be finding yourself way underwater and wondering what to do. We’ve been looking for solutions to help homeowners in these types of situations. It’s definitely better to buy low and sell high!! Not everyone has that option.

If you have questions on selling your home and what options are available we are working exclusively with Tax, Legal and CPA financial Services to get answers for homeowners wondering just what to do to get out of the situation they find themselves in. And it’s not just you, I am sure you have been hearing how your neighbor had to short sale their home and have seen several bank owned homes in your neighborhood.

What’s the right answer? Every situation is unique so there is no cut and dried answer to put into a blog post. But, getting those answer you need means calling and setting up an appointment to go over your criteria to find out is it cheaper to rent, should I sell and buy at a higher interest rate but have a lower overall house price? How can I protect my assets?

These are questions for the professionals! Get the help you deserve, call Jessica (602-743-3090) and ask her about our Short Sale Negotiator Team and get signed up to meet with their advisors. You’ll be making an informed decision regarding your families financial future. Negotiating the short sale of your home is FREE, it’s paid by the bank’s.

Like I said, the market is hot for sellers!! Low inventory, low-interest rates and LOTS of ready buyers!! We look forward to talking to you and if you want further information on Short Sale vs. Foreclosure visit: http://PhoenixForeclosureInfo.com

Beat the summer heat!

There are always market shifts. 

Sometimes it takes awhile to realize there is new activity in the market, prices are dropping or that the market is slowing, or more rehabs are coming on the market. We only see a tiny piece of the overall market in our corner of the world in Peoria. 

After all, we are busy showing homes, taking care of families, monitoring escrows and dealing with the summer heat. There is so much new each day in real estate market around the valley that we can often be focusing on the daily things and then suddenly we realize – oh the market has shifted again.   

What’s been happening lately? Has it slowed down now that the tax credit is no longer available for first time buyers and move-up buyers? Are the bank’s placing more homes on the market now that it’s the summer? Typically, more families will buy in the summer so that they can settle before school starts. What about the investors are they selling all those rehabs or are they sitting on the market? 

Personally, I see a slow-down but I also see some great deals if you are patient and put in a lot of offers. We’ve been looking and looking at different investment homes in the Glendale, Surprise and Peoria areas.  I had a call today from a buyer who was working with another agent. He said “we tried putting an offer in on a house and she (his realtor) was too late there were already 3 other offers!!” I let him know that we were seeing this too and that his agent wasn’t slow but was having to deal with a market that had many investors buying properties. 

One of the agents at the office said he wrote 13 offers on homes before he got an accepted offer for his buyer. I don’t believe that there are as many regular home buyers or move up buyers as there were as with the tax incentive a couple of months ago.  One of our buyers tried 5-6 times to get an offer accepted on a home in Glendale in either the 85302 or 85304 zip code area. She wrote about 6 offers and many times waited for a week – 10 days to hear back from the bank who was selling the property on whether her offer was accepted or not. But, the good news is that finally at the end of approximately 6-8 weeks of looking at homes 2-3 times a week she got a home in the exact neighborhood she wanted and the price was exceptional. 

So, there are good deals but it takes Patience and Persistance both with Capital P’s and the dedication of a realtor who really wants to help you find the “right home”. 

What else are we seeing? We are seeing cash offers, investors going for properties that can bring in a profit with a flip or as a monthly rental investment property; with multiple offers on homes that are priced aggressively.  Maybe investors just see opportunity whereas many of the people I know are struggling and thinking about buying a home is just not a priority. 

But the investors see opportunity with today’s low prices and they are buying. Are they overbuying? Just to flood the market again with rental homes that just sit? Time will tell.

Entering the CDPE Momentum Event

Here we are just entering the CDPE Momentum Event. I will try to relay some of the insights from this important event covering the Distressed Property and how we can help homeowners. Our team felt this event was helpful in many ways including understanding the homeowners emotional distress, the lender’s perspective and how Realtor’s can help with the CDPE training and education.

Jessica Bohannon is our team member who has completed this important Certified Distressed Property Expert – CDPE training. She has been helping home owners work with their lenders to negotiate the terms of selling their homes when they owe more on their home than they can sell it. It can often takes months of negotiations with the lenders. In Arizona, our team lists and sells these types of short sale homes in Glendale, Peoria, Goodyear, Avondale, Tolleson, Surprise, Scottsdale, Phoenix, Laveen, Waddell, Litchfield Park and Tolleson.

The CDPE event had many speakers including of course, the CEO and co-founder Alex Charfen of the Distressed Property Institute, Matthew Vernon, Short Sale and REO Executive at Bank of America, plus other speakers, Realtors and marketers. Alex made quite an impact with his vision to provide a national forum for Realtors to learn and come together to share ideas on helping homeowners and helping our economy.

Alex was quoted as saying “Homeownership is Sacred” and we believe in his vision and will be working to reach out to Arizona homeowners to help guide them with these difficult decisions. I believe it starts with a caring heart. Caring about what homeowners are going through and working to bring education from the Wachovia Fast Track short sale, to the New technology helping Bank of America commit and achieve their goals in helping Arizona homeowners avoid foreclosure.

We’re here and we can help with information and resources for your family. Call 602-743-3090 or email to day.

Why a local lender? Many realtors will recommend only certain lenders – why is that? Trust in the lender. The realtor has worked with the lender with other clients and they have been happy with that lenders services, fees and communication about the loan process. Typically, if there is an issue on the loan, appraisal, or the home itself the agent can go directly to the lender with questions and get the answers for their buyer. This helps tremendously to reduce the stress with a home purchase.

Many lenders will also help to answer questions about your credit score, how much you will need as a down payment and how much your monthly payment would be. These will help you to decide if you are ready to purchase a home or if you need more money saved.

Lenders look for a good credit rating (or FICO score), sufficient funds to make the initial down payment, closing costs and reserve money in the bank, and a stable employment situation.  Stable employment will typically be with the same employer or same type of work for 2 years, many times education in the same field can be considered. This is where talking to the lender helps with answering individual questions on your situation.

There are programs that can help with the down payment funds, we can search and see what types of programs are currently available. For example, HUD currently has a program where you can purchase a home with $100.00 down but there are certain restrictions and they do not pay for the title insurance for the buyer.  We keep a list of the Arizona HUD homes that are available and can send a copy to you.

In Arizona, FHA loans are very popular and the buyer can get closing costs funds from the seller’s contribution or many times can get “gift funds”. If you have questions or want information on local lenders just drop us a line. We look forward to hearing from you.

Joni  is a funny, caring person who is eager to help you find the best home available in your price range.  She is hard-working and dedicated to finding “Your Arizona Dream Home”. Joni is a people person and helps with many of our property searches, phone calls and emails. Joni works mainly with first-time buyers and move up buyers.

Jessica is a perfectionist and very detail oriented. She monitors Arizona Short Sales listings, the Escrow process, helps put together property searches for buyers, and works behind the scenes many times on the paperwork for both buyers and sellers, on investment homes, fix up homes and short sale properties.

Together we complement each other and work hard to make sure you are getting top notch quality service.  We feel that it’s our job to be here to answer questions you may have as a first time buyer regarding lenders, home inspections, appraisals, and basically what to expect during your home purchase.  Right now, we get a lot of people with questions. Our blog will be highlighting questions/answers and New to the Market homes in the Metro Phoenix area.

Typical questions include:

• Credit Repair
• My home’s Market Value
• Short sale vs. Foreclosure
• Finding the right lender
• Community information
• How do you buy a HUD home
• School district information
• Rent vs. Buying – what are the benefits

Investors are buying homes for rental properties competing head to head with the first time buyers who are trying to buy homes using FHA programs. This is new for 2009 and is now making it so that as soon as soon as a new foreclosure or lender owned home hits the market we are getting high numbers of emails and calls.

If you are working with a realtor be sure that they are getting the newest listing to you as soon as they become available in the ARMLS flex system.

This is also reducing the number of lender owned home significantly making it possible for short sales to finally get noticed. Finally, good news for home owners who are considering short sales in Arizona.

If you are considering a short sale you may want to contact a realtor who has the knowledge to help you because it seems like it’s now going to be a short sale market – are you ready to learn about short sales?

Please visit http://www.ArizonaShortSaleHomes.com for further information on short sales and we will be updating this type of sale in the near future on this blog.

Finding a great realtor to help you is the most important aspect, in my opinion when buying a home. Why is that? You need someone who can focus on your family, your needs and what you really desire and can afford. It needs to be a realtor who can devote the time to listen to your plans and help you to visualize your dream home.

Maybe the first home you buy isn’t your ultimate dream home with a grand stairway, game room, pool with fabulous waterfall, but it is the dream of stepping into the future and beginning with your very first home purchase.

When you make a connection to an agent be sure to ask questions on number of years in the business, recent sales, market trends and keep abreast yourself so that you know you are being given the correct information.

If you have any misgiving that the agent is not as experienced as you need or is too busy to help you shop then speak to another agent. Finding the right realtor will help to take much of the stress out of buying your home.

I am working with several agents with short sales, plus with a new investor program to help determine what homes are good values. How to know when you are making a good offer on a fix up that needs to be renovated.

We have rehabbed about 4-5 homes in the past 6 weeks and they seem to be selling very quickly to first time buyers once they are renovated.