August 23, 2008
I want to talk about 2 things, Short Sales and Down Payment Assistance.
Down Payment Assistance
There are a number of nonprofit organizations doing gifts for down payments. The way it works is the nonprofit organization gifts the buyer 3% for the down payment with the agreement that the seller agrees to pay the nonprofit organization the 3% that it would take for the down payment plus a small transaction fee after the property close. That's as simply as I can make it and if you have questions call me 208-861-2344. This ends September 30th, 2008! That means if you are going to buy a home with this kind of Down Payment Assistance it has to close and fund not later than September 30th, 2008.
Short Sales
Short Sales can take a couple months or possibly 6 months or more to get closed and normally it takes 3 to 5 months right now. On a short sale it stays on the market until the lender/mortgage holder approves the sales contract, so you have to have the buyer, seller, and mortgage holder all approve the sale. The seller can agree to the sales contract, but that does not mean the mortgage holder will, so while you wait for the mortgage holder to approve the sale, the property remains on the mls as an active listing and other buyers can make offers which could be higher than yours and the seller could agree to that sales contract also because your's has not been approved by the mortgage holder and you do not have an accepted sales agreement until the mortgage holder agrees. I have seen homes with 4 or more offers on them before the bank gets around to assigning the file to a case worker. So, you have to have a lot of patients and be willing to live in the state of not knowing if your offer is going to be accepted for months, sometimes 6 months or more. If you are looking to buy quick, than a short sale is probably not the way to go.
So, if you need a lend, visit SpudLoans.Com, Mike and Georgea Lipinski, and remember if you're looking at that first home, come see me at Sienna Creek!
Hope you have a Terrific Day! Tom Zumwalt 208-861-2344
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June 6, 2008
First Time Home Buyers! Hey First Time Home Buyers, now is a good time to buy a home! A First Time Home Buyer is someone that has not owned a home in the past 2 years! There's some programs out there to help you buy your first home. SpudLoans.Com, Mike and Georgea Lipinski at Academy Mortgage in Nampa, Idaho are terrific at helping you to get in your first home. I've worked with them for a number of years and they have just been great at getting people in their first Boise Idaho Home! Speaking of first time homes, go check out Sienna Creek.Com! We have homes starting at $164,900 and I'm there as your Buyer's agent to help you through the process of buying that first home. Believe it or not, one of the biggest responsibilities we have as realtors is to help educated people about real estate and the process of buying and selling real estate. Along with that, a big part of the lenders job is to educated people about the lending process and Mike and Georgea Lipinski do a great job of that!
So, if you need a lend, visit SpudLoans.Com, Mike and Georgea Lipinski, and remember if you're looking at that first home, come see me at Sienna Creek!
Hope you have a Terrific Day! Tom Zumwalt 208-861-2344
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June 2, 2008
I want to talk about short sales in Boise Idaho Real Estate and what happens sometimes when people tell you everything is going alright. As most of you know, there are a lot of short sales listed in the Boise MLS right now and sometimes they turn out to be really good buys. Well, sometimes short sales do not turn out too good. It happened that way on one I was working on. We worked on it for 3 months, I was told everything was going to work out, the other agent had got in touch with both the 1st lean holder and the 2nd lean holder, the 1st agreed to the short sale, the other agent was working with the 2nd on a settlement, and boom, I got an email from the other agent that says, Oh, by the way, this property goes to auction tomorrow and I could never get the 2nd mortgage holder to agree on a settlement and they wouldn't even call me back.
Well, I had some really upset clients. I lost my clients and a sale. From their view point I had not done my job. My point is that if you are the Buyer's agent in one of these short sales you do not really have control of what the banks do or what the sellers agent does. You can phone and email the sellers agent, but if you do not have notarized written permission from the seller of the property to contact in mortgage holders you can not even find out anything about that property. So, if you are a buyer and you are in the middle of buying a short sale or going to buy a short sale, it takes time, patients, and understanding of the process that goes on. Don't throw your realtor under the bus if it doesn't work out the way you think it should. I'm sure they did what they could and feel really bad that it did not work out.
Hope you have a Terrific Day! Tom Zumwalt 208-861-2344
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May 31, 2008
Here's a few new statistics about 1st time home buyers for Boise Idaho Real Estate and nationwide. 39% of all buyers are 1st time home buyers. Overall, 12% of first time buyers were NOT born in the United States, versus 8% of repeat buyers. And 70% bought a home because they wanted to own real estate and establish a household. 52% of first time home buyers are from 24-35 years old, 21% are 35-44 years old. The 24-35 year old group are considered generation X and have grow up with computers and understand technology. 87% of the 24-35 year old group shop online and at least half of them do their banking online. Also not surprising is that 87% of people started on the internet learning about buying a home and searching for that home.
I just thought you might find the statistics interesting and remember come see me at Sienna Creek!
Hope you have a Terrific Day! Tom Zumwalt 208-861-2344
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June 26, 2008
