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.

Have you always wanted to know how the other half lives?  Well this is your chance.  Come to the Luxury Home Tour and see our listing at 5905 Bold Ruler Way.  Also on the tour will be 7 other homes priced to over 4.3 million.  Wine and cheese will be served!

Luxury Home Tour 2010

We all know that Austin is the live music capital of the world and now we’re getting the premier tour of female musicians via the Lilith Fair.  The date has been known for a little while now: August 14th.  I think most people would prefer a nice cool indoor space for an event at this time of year, but guess what?  We’re not getting it!

The concert will take place at Auditorium Shores.  Well, at least you can go for a swim!

The Lilith fare lineup looks like this:

• Court Yard Hounds (2/3 of the Dixie Chicks)
• Melissa McClelland
• Jill Scott
• Sarah McLachlan
• Ximena Sariñana
• Sia
• Corinne Bailey Rae (my personal Fav!)
• Brandi Carlile
• SHEL
• Miranda Lambert

For all my Realtor friends out there who have been following my rants about having to use the ActiveKEY, there is hope!

I noticed (Jenn told me) on the bottom of the Showing Value emails there was a new blurb about being able to open lockboxes with iPhones.  At this point, little other information is available, but I’m excited!

Here is a screenshot of their website.  This can’t come along too soon for all us iPhone using Realtors out there!

Great article that I thought I would share with everyone.

If  are a real estate investor, take a quick look and make sure your bases are covered.