The new incentives recently began and are eligible for buyers who will live in the home. According to Fannie Mae, the offers must be accepted on or after January 28, 2010 and they have to close before May first for properties on its site: Homepath.com

So what’s the special offer? Buyers can receive up to 3.5 percent of the sales price for closing costs or the purchase of a new Whirlpool appliance or even a combination of the two.

There are more incentives. The government’s current buyer incentive programs include the extension of the First-Time Homebuyer Credit through April 20, 2010 (there’s a 60-day cushion to complete closing beyond that date). This program broadens the reach to include existing homeowners. Here is a quick look at eligibility and the incentives:

• $8,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers
• $6,500 tax credit for existing homebuyers who have lived in their current residence for at least five years but want to relocate to a new primary residence
• Increased income limits for individuals and couples Tips for buying a home owned by Fannie Mae.

What you see is what you get. When you are buying a property owned by Fannie Mae, there are a few things that you should know. According to its website, Fannie Mae may make some repairs to a property but probably not much. “Fannie Mae sells each property “as is,” which means that the buyer accepts the property “as is.” Fannie Mae is not responsible for fixing any problems after settlement.”

Home inspections. Fannie Mae also recommends what I have written about for years—hire a qualified home inspector to give you an accurate report on the current condition of the home. For a relatively small amount of money, this can save you a lot and give you a greater understanding of what problems exist currently or might soon develop.

No contingencies. If your home is on the market and you’re shopping for a new one but need to close on your primary residence, Fannie Mae isn’t the way to go. “Fannie Mae will not accept offers contingent on the sale of your current home. Other types of contingencies will be considered on a case-by-case basis.”

Get prequalified. This is really important for a lot of reasons regardless of whether you’re buying a home owned by Fannie Mae. There are more restrictions these days when it comes to getting home loans. So, knowing that you’re prequalified to purchase a home at a specific price will make shopping for the home that fits your budget easier. But Fannie Mae cautions, “A loan prequalification doesn’t mean your loan is approved. You must apply for a loan separately, after you are prequalified and your purchase offer is accepted.”

Making an offer. Just as with most real estate transactions, making an offer on a home requires a lot of research. Your real estate agent can get you vital information and when you’re ready, the offer is submitted via your agent. “Fannie Mae depends on the expertise of local real estate sales professionals and accepts offers only through our real estate listing agents. You may work with any real estate sales professional to submit an offer to the real estate agent who has listed the property.” Buying a home has become more affordable than ever and, with more incentives, it may be time to do some spring house hunting.

Valerie Fitzgerald specializes in luxury residential real estate in Beverly Hills, Bel Air, Brentwood, Santa Monica and Malibu. Valerie has more than 20 years of real estate experience and is known for her solid reputation in the West Los Angeles brokerage community. She’s also the author of the book published by Simon and Schuster Heart and Sold: How to Survive and Build a Recession-Proof Business. Buy it here.

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“Backed by the resources and industry insights of NAR and its Realtor® members, HouseLogic will engage and involve consumers throughout the lifecycle of homeownership,” said NAR President Vicki Cox Golder, owner of Vicki L. Cox & Associates in Tucson, Ariz. “It makes sense that, as the first, best source for real estate information, NAR should collaborate with today’s consumers to help them make the most out of owning a home. HouseLogic will help us do that.”

The free Web site helps homeowners plan and organize their home projects and provides timely articles and news; home improvement advice and how-to’s; and information about taxes, home finances and insurance.

“Unlike other homeownership Web sites, HouseLogic helps consumers view their home through a financial lens and make smart, informed home improvement investment decisions,” said Golder. “Families can set goals for saving money on their home or increasing its value, and easily track the progress they are making on those goals.

Registered users can save relevant information, create to-do lists and set project reminders. The Web site can also be customized for individual homeowners depending on how handy or ambitious they are regarding home projects; how much money they want to spend or save; where they live; and their priorities, such as increasing the value of their home or improving their neighborhood.

HouseLogic also empowers homeowners who want to get more actively engaged in shaping community life and advocate neighborhood and homeownership issues that matter most to them. The site provides users with the tools and know-how to effect change and address concerns, like establishing a neighborhood watch program, building a community playground, or participating in city or county planning efforts.

“For more than 100 years Realtors® have been bringing America home,” said Golder. “HouseLogic takes owning a home to the next level, partnering with consumers to truly help people build their futures through homeownership.

Visit HouseLogic at www.houselogic.com.

The National Association of Realtors®, “The Voice for Real Estate,” is America’s largest trade association, representing 1.2 million members involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate industries.

Valerie Fitzgerald specializes in luxury residential real estate in Beverly Hills, Bel Air, Brentwood, Santa Monica and Malibu. Valerie has more than 20 years of real estate experience and is known for her solid reputation in the West Los Angeles brokerage community. She’s also the author of the book published by Simon and Schuster Heart and Sold: How to Survive and Build a Recession-Proof Business. Buy it here.

Subscribe to this blog: Valerie Fitzgerald Group Blog

Follow Valerie on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ValreFitzgerald

Follow Valerie on Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/ValerieFitzgeraldRealEstate

Everyone’s got a story.  And when people hear mine, they become inspired.  America’s story is written by people who have reinvented themselves after encountering adversity and facing it head on.  I’m no different.

How I went from a chicken farm in South Dakota to a professional model in Manhattan, from an abused, single mother to a billion dollar agent to celebrities in Beverly Hills, has become a journey that encourages others.  I’ve reinvented my life many times, and I eventually carved out my best niche.

When people ask me what are the keys to my personal and professional success, I think to myself “trial and error and a lot of hard work.”  However, people want a concrete blueprint to follow, something tangible they can grasp and implement on their own.

To create a sustainable and rewarding life in both the personal and professional realms, I believe these three steps are paramount:

1.   Be Consistent - Have clear goals and work toward you goals everyday.  Let’s say you are working toward a successful career in real estate.  Everyday you need to do something to: further your education of the current market you work in; contact prospective clients; return calls and emails from existing clients; research finance options for impending sales; review marketing campaign and personal website…and that’s just the beginning.   There are 100’s of things you can do to further your productivity, and you need to do some of those 100’s of things each and every day, keeping your focus on the most important tasks that will lead you to your goals the fastest.

2.    Be Diligent – Be diligent about the things you do and things you say you are going to do.  You are only as good as your word. When you tell a client that you’ll research their question…research their question and get back to them quickly.  If you say you are going to call a client on a particular day…call that client on that particular day.  If you fail to keep your word, others will be inclined to take you less seriously – as a result…you’ll have less opportunities to keep you word.  Conversely, whatever you are doing…do it well.  Do your best.  Clients recognize haphazard or ‘lazy’ work.

3.   Be Serious – Yes, take your job seriously…have fun with it, and remember the reasons for why you’re doing what you’re doing.  Perhaps you want to make more money, contribute your time to charity or create more family customs and traditions – by reminding yourself of the “why?” you give your efforts meaning.

In my book, Heart and Sold: How to Survive and Build a Recession-Proof Business, I talk about the awakening of the self.  At first that feeling is fleeting and unfamiliar; but as you nurture it, you grow more powerful by the day.  Two events in my own life profoundly awoke my inner self — the end of my marriage and the birth of my daughter.  Both experiences created 180-degree shifts in my life and who I thought I was.  Like a diamond in the rough, thousands of pounds of pressure beat away at me until my new self could emerge shiny, beautiful and strong.

Until people started asking me to speak at conferences and events or I was appearing in Top 10 real estate lists nationwide, I really didn’t think about my success. People would say, “Wow, you are amazing!” But I really didn’t know what being amazing meant. I worked hard. I sold houses. I figured out my business. And I put a lot of effort into it.

Remember: success doesn’t happen overnight. The passion that it takes to reach your goals feels like a strong inner drive. There is something inside everyone that triggers that drive and makes people go above and beyond the status quo breaking through mediocrity. That’s what makes their visions come true.

Given the current economic crisis, many people are struggling financially and otherwise.  I overcame tremendous personal and financial adversities to create a life I desired most, and so can you.  I truly believe that desiring success is a very powerful step to take along the road to achieving it.  To live the new possibilities of your imagination is exciting.  The possibilities and choices are endless.

About Valerie Fitzgerald

Valerie Fitzgerald is the president of The Valerie Fitzgerald Group and specializes in luxury residential real estate in West Los Angeles in neighborhoods like Beverly Hills, Bel Air, Brentwood, Santa Monica and Malibu.  She is the author of Heart and Sold: How to Survive and Build a Recession-Proof Business (Simon and Schuster).  She has more than 20 years of real estate experience and is known for her solid reputation in the West Los Angeles real estate community and her celebrity clientele.   She is on The Wall Street Journal’s “The Real Estate Top 200 list” and is one of Coldwell Banker’s Top 10 Agents nationwide.  She is the exclusive sales agent for Latitude 33, a new Marina del Rey luxury residential community.  Learn more http://thevaleriefitzgeraldgroup.com.

Is that some piece of rosy propaganda put out by housing lobbyists to stimulate more home buying? Not unless you consider Federal Reserve economists to be shills for the real estate industry. The Fed conducts massive ongoing research into mortgage balances and home-value changes in hundreds of local markets around the country, and reports its findings quarterly.

According to the Fed’s most recent “flow of funds” survey, homeowners’ net equity grew by nearly $1 trillion from the recession’s nadir in the first quarter of 2009 through the third quarter. From June 30 through Sept. 30, equity rose by $418 billion.

That’s not impressive compared with the quarterly increases registered during the hyperinflationary housing boom years, but it could signal something important: After three years of unprecedented shrinkage in home equity — and three years of rapid expansion in the number of underwater borrowers with negative equity — there are signs the down cycle may be shifting.

Last week, online real estate valuation researcher Zillow.com released its latest quarterly numbers on negative equity in major markets. The findings were sobering, but the study also offered some hints of improvement. The overall negative equity rate among U.S. homeowners remained flat in the fourth quarter at 21.4%. But like the Fed’s numbers, that represented a decrease from the first two quarters of last year, when 22% and 23% of owners owed more on their mortgages than the estimated market value of their real estate.

Zillow’s study found that in dozens of housing markets — including Washington, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Detroit, Miami, San Jose, Seattle and Tampa-St. Petersburg — the percentage of homeowners with negative equity appears to be on the decline.

Some of the largest declines occurred in cities hardest hit by the recession and the housing bust — Ann Arbor, Mich. (down 9 percentage points), Riverside (down 5.7 points) and Phoenix (down 2 points). Florida markets that have struggled with major devaluations also saw significant improvement in negative equity ratios in the fourth quarter.

On the other hand, Zillow’s study found historically high rates of negative equity continuing to prevail in key cities. In Las Vegas, for example, 81.3% of homeowners — 256,000 households — were still underwater on their mortgages in the fourth quarter. This number is down from 82.5% in early 2009, but that’s no consolation to the affected owners.

In Phoenix, 61.5% of borrowers were in negative territory — 2 points lower than in the previous quarter, yet still high.

Which major markets have the lowest underwater rates? As you might guess, they tend to be areas where the equity boom never quite boomed, and where toxic mortgages and fog-the-mirror underwriting by lenders were never the rage: Tulsa, Okla. (4.2%), Harrisburg, Pa. (5.7%), Binghamton, N.Y. (5.6%), and Peoria, Ill. (8%).

Negative equity rates are crucial barometers of local housing markets’ propensity to experience high rates of default, foreclosure and strategic walkaways. Communities with single-digit negative equity rates tend to have lower rates of walkaways and foreclosures.

The reverse is the case in areas where large numbers of underwater homeowners see no economic rationale for continuing to send in their monthly mortgage payments on properties worth tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars less than the principal balance owed to the bank. They believe they are throwing away money on albatross real estate.

Mortgage market analyst Laurie Goodman, senior managing director of Amherst Securities, recently warned lenders to be especially vigilant about borrowers in markets where negative equity ratios are high. Once underwater borrowers miss just one payment on their mortgage, according to Goodman, there is a 75% to 80% probability that they will chuck the whole deal.

Borrowers with even minimal positive equity, on the other hand, are far less likely to do the same.

kenharney@earthlink.net.

Distributed by the Washington Post Writers Group.

Valerie Fitzgerald specializes in luxury residential real estate in Beverly Hills, Bel Air, Brentwood, Santa Monica and Malibu. Valerie has more than 20 years of real estate experience and is known for her solid reputation in the West Los Angeles brokerage community. She’s also the author of the book published by Simon and Schuster Heart and Sold: How to Survive and Build a Recession-Proof Business. Buy it here.

Subscribe to this blog: Valerie Fitzgerald Group Blog

Follow Valerie on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ValreFitzgerald

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Total existing-home sales, including single-family and condominium units, increased to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.03 million in the fourth quarter, a 27.2% increase from the fourth quarter of 2008, according to the National Assn. of Realtors.

Distressed property — either bank-owned homes or those sold by homeowners who can’t make their payments — accounted for 32% of all transactions in the fourth quarter, a decline from 37% a year earlier.

Sales increased from the third quarter in 48 states and the District of Columbia; 32 states saw double-digit gains. Year-over-year sales were higher in 49 states and the district. All but three states registered double-digit annual increases.

“The surge in home sales was driven by buyers responding strongly to the tax credit combined with record-low mortgage interest rates,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the Realtors group. “With inventory levels trending down over the past 18 months, we expect broadly balanced housing market conditions in much of the country by late spring with more areas showing higher prices.”

The national median existing single-family price was $172,900, a 2.9% increase from the third quarter and a decline of 4.1% from the fourth quarter of 2008. The median is the point at which half of the homes sold for more and half sold for less.

The median price for a condominium in 54 metro areas was $177,300 in the fourth quarter, a decline of 4.8% from the fourth quarter of 2008. Eleven metro areas showed increases in the median condo price from a year earlier and 43 areas had declines. In the third quarter only four metros experienced annual price gains.

Sales of previously owned homes in the West jumped 16.2% in the fourth quarter to an annual rate of 1.38 million and are 18.2% above a year ago. The median existing single-family home price in the West was $227,200 in the fourth quarter, a decline of 8.9% from the fourth quarter of 2008.

– L.A. Times Alejandro Lazo

But now get ready for the post-boom, post-crash trend: “cash-in” refis — the opposite of cash-outs.

“It almost sounds un-American,” quipped Frank Nothaft, chief economist for mortgage giant Freddie Mac. After all, Americans have grown accustomed over much of the last two decades to tapping into their equity — pulling out a chunk of cash and adding to their debt load — when they refinanced their mortgages. “Almost nobody thought of putting money back in.”

Cash-outs hit their highest level of popularity during the wild appreciation streaks in the early and middle years of the last decade. In mid-2006, just before home values began deflating across the country, the rate of cash-outs hit 88%, according to Freddie Mac, which monitors refinancings quarterly.

This meant that nearly 9 out of 10 refinancers whose loan files were sampled by Freddie Mac increased the size of their mortgage balance by at least 5% in the process. It was the heyday of the pile-on-more-debt mind-set — cash me out, I can’t lose on my real estate — that came crumbling down in 2007 and 2008, when home equity holdings shrank drastically and painfully.

From 2005 to the third quarter of 2009, according to Federal Reserve estimates, American homeowners lost $7 trillion in equity — an unprecedented evaporation of household wealth. Almost nobody was spared.

Now the pendulum in consumer psychology appears to be swinging toward reduction of household debt — whether on credit cards or mortgages.

In Freddie Mac’s latest quarterly survey of refinancings, 33% of homeowners put cash into the deal to lower their mortgage balances, the highest percentage ever. By contrast, only 27% of refinancers took cash out — the lowest percentage on record.

Why shift money from savings into your house? Nothaft says a small percentage of refinancers — including himself and his wife — traditionally have preferred to lower their mortgage balances whenever possible.

There are at least two key rationales for doing so, Nothaft says. No. 1: If interest rates are low and you’re getting minuscule returns on your bank savings or money market funds, paying down your home loan may well provide you a better return on your investment.

For example, in early 2009, Nothaft and his wife chose to lower their mortgage balance at the same time they were refinancing. “We thought, hey, this is a no-brainer,” Nothaft recalls. “We can get a 4 3/4 % return instead of close to zero” on checking accounts and bank deposits.

A second reason to consider a cash-in refi would be to qualify for a better interest rate and terms on the replacement mortgage.

Say you have a loan-to-value ratio above 80% and any refi of the current balance will require payment of private mortgage insurance premiums and possibly come with a higher rate.

But if you have some money that you could devote to lowering the principal balance — cashing in — you might be able to cut your LTV to 75% or less and get a more favorable interest rate and avoid mortgage insurance premiums.

Cash-ins, in effect, are a disciplined form of saving — one that in today’s depressed rates for competing types of savings might be an astute financial move.

Nothaft isn’t sure whether the recent jump in cash-in refis is the start of a long-term societal shift. But there has been a steady rise since the fourth quarter of 2007, when cash-ins hit 9%, up from just 5% of all refis earlier that year.

By early 2009, they accounted for 13% of refinancings, then grew to 18% in the third quarter. After that, cash-ins jumped to 33% in the final three months of 2009.

“It may well be a reaction to higher credit standards by lenders” — making cash-outs and refis in general tougher to get — or “some decision on the part of many people to be a little more conservative in uncertain times,” Nothaft said.

A cash-in refi is hardly an option for everyone. But with mortgage rates widely predicted to rise from 5% at present for a 30-year fixed-rate loan to the mid- to upper-5s as the year progresses, the numbers just might work for you if you have the resources.

Los Angeles Times

The Valerie Fitzgerald Group specializes in luxury residential real estate in Beverly Hills, Bel Air, Brentwood, Santa Monica and Malibu. Valerie has more than 20 years of real estate experience and is known for her solid reputation in the West Los Angeles brokerage community. She’s also the author of the book published by Simon and Schuster Heart and Sold: How to Survive and Build a Recession-Proof Business. Buy it here.

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FROM REAL ESTATE MAGAZINE

Jobs, foreclosures, option-adjustable-rate mortgages, and interest rates are among the top trends that could dictate what will happen in California’s housing markets this year. Here’s what you need to know to make sense of how these trends could affect the real estate market.

1. Market Fundamentals
Three market fundamentals that turned positive in 2009 could be good indicators this year as well. First, home prices have fallen lower than replacement costs in many markets. This means a home can be bought for less than the cost to build it.

Second, home prices are “a lot more attractive” relative to rents than they have been in many years; and  third, inventory of for-sale homes has “dropped very dramatically,” says Richard K. Green, director of the USC Lusk School of Real Estate in Los Angeles. That suggests some markets have stabilized, although
homes priced at more than $1 million may be an exception. “There is still a lot of pain left to come” in that segment of the market, Green warns.

2. Jobs
“Painful” describes the employment picture and the outlook for wage hikes and job security. Moreover, housing may now be less sensitive to traditional jobmoving patterns, observes Stefan Swanepoel, a real estate trends expert, author, and speaker in Aliso Viejo. Home sales that involve corporate relocations or year-end job changes may be moribund until the employment situation improves.

3. Foreclosures
Jobs are an important factor in foreclosures, though “not everyone who has lost a job has lost their  house yet,” Swanepoel says. Homeowners who’ve lost a job may have had to live on lower wages or one income, or may have had to tap into their savings or retirement accounts to get by. “If they don’t get a decent job or a good job soon, I can see their houses still coming on the market in foreclosures or short sales,” he says.

Another trend to watch is that some homewners have dodged foreclosure even though they haven’t made their mortgage payments, according to Sean O’Toole, chief executive of ForeclosureRadar.com.
“We don’t have the political or societal will to foreclose on [that many] people, but nor do we have the will to bail out those homeowners who can’t afford their payments,” O’Toole says. That stalemate has slowed the pace of foreclosures, which may mean fewer opportunities for REALTORS® to list and  sell those homes, he suggests.

4. Lenders and Loans
Home loans are crucial to healthy housing markets, so REALTORS® need to keep an eye on national lenders that originate loans locally, Swanepoel suggests. “As they digest the companies they’ve acquired and find out what loans they have, what loans they are servicing, and what their exposure in certain markets is, they might change their rules and terms and conditions,” he warns. Tougher requirements for loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) could have an effect on housing as well.

5. Interest Rates
Interest rates could turn out to be the ultimate wild card. How long the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates low is an unanswerable question on which hangs the future of housing. The Fed’s ability to maintain low interest rates is “the greatest risk to the real estate industry right now,” says O’Toole. “If interest rates go to 8 percent, this market is over.”

6. Option-ARM Recasts
Low interest rates have taken the sting out of adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs), but the payment option variety is still watch-worthy because a recast to make up negative amortization can result in an enormous payment shock, Green notes. “You could set up a fairly simple example where interest rates don’t go up at all, but the payment doubles,” he says. “If that loan was originated with a 90 percent loan-to-value ratio and you are piling up principal, you could be deeply underwater and unable to make the payment.” Aggressive loan modification programs have blunted the expected blow from option-ARM recasts, but many homeowners still owe more than their home is worth and 30-day delinquencies
have continued to climb, O’Toole observes.

That suggests more homeowners may throw in the towel. “Strategic walk-aways from negative equity and/or due to job loss are going to be a bigger issue because modification programs and low interest rates likely have taken up the slack from the reset/recast issue,” he explains.

The Valerie Fitzgerald Group specializes in luxury residential real estate in Beverly Hills, Bel Air, Brentwood, Santa Monica and Malibu. Valerie has more than 20 years of real estate experience and is known for her solid reputation in the West Los Angeles brokerage community. She’s also the author of the book published by Simon and Schuster Heart and Sold: How to Survive and Build a Recession-Proof Business. Buy it here.

Subscribe to this blog: Valerie Fitzgerald Group Blog

Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ValreFitzgerald

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