Saturday, May 7th 1-4 pm. 9000 Sommerland Way. Updated and ready to Move-in within 30 days! New carpet in April 2011, gleaming hardwood floors, granite countertops and stainless steel appliances. 3 bedrooms plus study with glass front doors. Ceiling fans in all bedrooms and living room, surround sound and wired for sound outside. Master has hardwoods, a walk-in closet and separate tub and shower. Extended patio for backyard barbeques, and plenty of green space for a playscape. 4 sides masonry, and nicely landscaped. The schools, Bowie HS and Gorzycki MS are Recognized and Mills Elementary is rated Exemplary by the Texas Education Agency.  Dick Nichols Park is less than 5 minutes away with a pool, playground, tennis, basketball and volleyball courts. Low HOA dues only $14/ month.  Call Jennifer for an appointment to see this lovely home today! 512-470-2023. Click here to see virutal tour.  http://vt.realtour.biz/?P=88682&T=NOTIDX

We’ve seen the bottom and now rates are on the way up.   This spring is set to be a fantastic time to become a homeowner in Austin.  Existing home inventory is at record levels and sellers are willing to negotiate!  Give us a call and we’ll get a custom search set up to match your criteria.  If the house you want is available, we’ll find it for you!

For those of you not in Austin, you just might know that we had a fast moving tropical storm on top of us yesterday named Hermine. I guess after last week’s round-the-clock coverage on Earl, the mainstream media was too tuckered out to give Hermine much press. Oh well…

I took my daily run/walk around Town Lake (Lady Bird Lake) today and let me tell you, it was not looking good. I had to spend 10 minutes with the hose when I got home to try and get the mud off my shoes and the beast. So my friends, if you’re thinking of running the trail today – give it a second thought. Many portions are closed and many more are just downright gross.

Here are some photos of the scene:

By Paige Tepping

RISMEDIA, September 8, 2010–Many prospective homeowners find out the hard way the importance of a good credit score when they apply for a home mortgage, especially after the subprime loan crisis. If you are considering buying a home in the near future, it is a good idea to give your credit score a check-up and then take positive steps to improve your credit score if you find problems. Ideally, it is best to begin working on improving your credit score at least six months before you plan to start shopping for a home.

According to the experts at Buy-and-Sell-House-Fast.com, the following tips will help you improve your credit and should be taken before you begin your home search.

The first critical step in taking care of your credit is to check your credit report. Unfortunately, many people fail to take this all important first step. Instead, they wait until they have applied for a mortgage loan to find out from the lender that there are problems with their credit scores.

By checking your credit score before you apply for a mortgage loan, you gain the opportunity to find out if there are problems which you can correct and discrepancies that need to be removed. When you check your credit report, make sure you check all three of the national credit reporting agencies: Experian, Trans-Union and EquiFax.

Review your credit report carefully for items that may be erroneous. If you believe that an item on your credit report is reported in error, you have the right to contest it. To do so, you will need to contact the credit reporting agency and explain why you believe the item is inaccurate. Supporting documentation such as receipts and cancelled checks can help your claim. Alternatively, you can engage a credit report repair services firm to fix your credit report.

If there are derogatory items on your credit report that are accurate but which could cause problems in your loan application, you cannot have them removed; however, you can take positive steps to counteract them. In the event that you have missed payments in the past, take steps now to get your bills current. Even if it means tapping into money that you might be planning to use for a down payment, it is essential that you get your accounts current and keep them that way. Begin by immediately making your payments on time. There is nothing which can lower your credit score more quickly than late payments. Ideally, make an attempt to begin sending in your payments a few days ahead of time to make sure they arrive on time and you do not have any more late payments on your record. If necessary, begin taking advantage of electronic payments in order to make sure your payments are made on time. Over time, this can make significant difference.

Keep in mind that eradicating all of your credit balances is really not the solution. In fact, credit can be your friend when you are looking to make a big purchase such as a home. The key is to make sure your credit is positive, not negative. Toward that end, avoid actually closing out your accounts. Instead, make an effort to pay down your balances and keep them paid down well below the minimum or completely paid off, but do not close the account. When your lender runs your credit to make a decision on your mortgage application, he or she will want to see that you have had a long credit management history.

After reviewing your credit history, if you see that most, if not all of your credit cards are maxed out or nearly maxed out, it is time to sit down and plan an aggressive strategy for paying some of them down. One of the critical factors that often determine your ability to be approved for a mortgage loan is your debt to income ratio. In addition, high credit card balances can drag down your credit score. Therefore, it is important to look at paying off some of your balances.

It is generally better to begin with your highest-rate balances first. Many consumers are tempted to move around balances when they receive an offer from another bank that is good; however, before you do this, remember that the worst thing you can do when you are trying to make a major purchase is to open new accounts.

By following these guidelines, you can improve your credit score and improve your chances of being approved for your home mortgage loan.

For those of you out there who may be thinking of purchasing and using a FHA loan for financing, this press release has some good information. The bottom line is that you should purchase prior to 10/4/10 or your payments are jumping up for your mortgage insurance.

FHA Gives Home Buyers One-Month Window

September 1, 2010–The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) is giving homeowners and buyers until October 4 to lock in a low monthly insurance premium, according to Gibran Nicholas, chairman of the CMPS Institute, an organization that trains and certifies mortgage bankers and brokers. “After October 4, the monthly insurance premiums on FHA loans will increase by over 63%.”

What does this mean for home buyers?
A home buyer purchasing a $200,000 home using a $193,000 FHA mortgage before October 4 would pay an insurance premium of $88.46 per month. If the same home buyer waits until after October 4, the insurance premium would jump to $148.01.

“In this example, the home buyer would lose $59.55 per month, or $7,146 over a 10-year timeframe,” Nicholas said. “Although the upfront mortgage insurance premium is going down after October 4, the real impact to the home buyer is actually a net increase in their out of pocket costs because the monthly premium is going up by 63%. Remember, sellers can pay the upfront premium or it can be financed into the loan amount, so homebuyers rarely pay the upfront premium out of pocket. On the other hand, the increase in the monthly premiums will be paid right out of the home buyer’s pocket with their mortgage payment each month.”

Ironically, home buyers who plan to be in the mortgage for less than three years and decide to pay the upfront fee themselves (instead of having the seller pay it for them), may actually save money by waiting until after October 4 to apply for an FHA loan.

“Home buyers with a short term time horizon may actually benefit from this change because the upfront premium will be reduced to 1% from 2.25%,” Nicholas said. This change will impact over 30% of the home buyers in today’s market who use FHA-insured financing. Home buyers considering an FHA loan should find and contact a CMPS professional in their area to discuss their options and what this means for their situation.

Hey gang, we picked up a new listing today at 2930 Grand Oaks Loop.  It’s unit 801 of the complex.  I think these units are really well done, well at least this one is anyway.  We have it listed for 189,000.  If this condo were 10 minutes closer to Austin it would be double that price!

Take a look here:

See! I told you you’d love it.

Well, after a lot of guessing and speculation, the announcement that many have been waiting for is here.  The location of Austin’s F1 racetrack has been announced.  It’s just off SH 130 and FM 812.  It’s about 900 acres in the middle of nowhere, but very close to town and ABIA.

Follow this link if you’d like to see a map of the Austin F1 site.

Many hurdles remain to see if we can really get F1 racing in Austin by 2012, but if everyone from the city to the investors are as committed, it’s still a  possibility.

Keep your fingers crossed!

If you’re a listing agent or a homeowner in a short sale position, READ THIS BLOG, cause this one is for you.  Then watch the video.

We’re fortunate enough to work with many different types of clients.  Recently, we were approached about doing a show on HGTV about our work with first time homebuyers, which we’re very proud of.   We also work with various investors, big time investors.  I’m talking about some people who are serious about buying homes, to the tune of purchasing a home EVERY DAY.  These guys know what they are doing.

This particular investor that I am speaking of only purchases distressed properties and right now there are a lot of short sales on the market.  Short sales used to be the bane of my existence when I was was working with owner occupied buyers.  In case you don’t know, they take FOREVER to close.  I’m talking 60 days in a perfect situation, which few are.  In reality, you’re looking at more like 90-120 days.  You’re working on the bank’s schedule and since they’re taking a hit and up to their eyeballs with other shorts, you better have your act together when you submit you paperwork.

This particular investor hires (and pays for) his own third party foreclosure prevention company to handle all communication with the bank.   Their success rate for getting deals closed is around 90%.  Yes, you read that right 90%!

So,  AGENTS – if you want to work with our investor to sell your short sale quickly.  Do not, and I repeat DO NOT hire a mitigation company to handle communication with the bank.  We have our own and banks do not like to work with more than one party on a deal at a time.   Rest assured, when you work with us, you will get your full commission, unlike if you hire some other mitigators.    As with any short sale, there is a boat load of paperwork upfront, but we have systems in place to help make sure the team has everything they need to get the job done.  If you have a short sale, call us, we will probably buy it.

In this video, Dan and I are discussing short sale offers.  The key take away point of the video is, the highest offer  is not necessarily the best offer.  In a negative equity situation, the homeowner cannot, by law, walk away with any monies from the sale.   So, no matter how low the initial offer comes in, the seller should sign it and send it along to the bank to be negotiated.  The initial offer is just a formality and a way to kick off the back and forth negotiations with the bank and the negotiator.   When the two sides finally come to terms, the seller is presented with a letter indicating what type of agreement was reached for their final approval.  In the rare case where there is a deficiency, it will be clearly stated on the short sale approval letter.   If the terms don’t work for the seller, they may choose not to sign, and the deal is off.

Remember, these are CASH deals on our side, no financing is required and these are professional investors so waiting on the bank’s response is not a problem.  If it takes several months, no problem.  We’ll be waiting…

Maxwell discusses the new Central Austin Pricing Index that he created.  This index gives you the ability to see what is happening in central Austin vs. the entire Austin MLS that covers 69 unique MLS areas.  For this index, we selected Austin MLS areas 1A, 1B, 2, 3, 4, 5, DT and UT.

We’re happy to give you a custom report for your neighborhood so you can see exactly what is happening there.

Dan Blasingame and I will be coming out with a series of videos discussing the short sale process.  Here is the first video of the series.

In this video, Dan and I are discussing how filing bankruptcy can affect the foreclosure and short sale process and our view of how best to handle the situation in TX.