Kim Novak's Utah Real Estate Blog

Press Release

Finally, I've found the actual FHA regulation, a clear and concise breakdown of the waiver of FHA's Anti-Flipping Rule. Surprisingly, the FHA ruling is quite simple reading, with easy, common sense conditions to meet. If any of you are dealing with individual lenders and their investors with flip situations right now, you know that these institutions all have their own "layer" of requirements that make it almost impossible to meet their guidelines.

Solution? Make sure that your lender doesn't have their own policy restricting underwriting and financing of "flips" and has access to an investor who will honor the FHA guidelines, as written, without a third layer of restrictions and conditions.

Layers are good if you're Shrek, not so much if you're a buyer's agent trying to make your client's first time home buying dream come true when they find that cute little remodel with the fenced backyard for her kids.

As a CDPE® serving the communities surrounding Hill AFB UT, I compiled this handbook to aid my active duty, prior service and retired military clients understand their options to overcome obstacles created by the current mortgage and housing crisis. Click Here for a copy of my handbook.

Although the primary subject matter relates to Foreclosure Prevention, there is also guidance on how to take advantage of the military benefits of the 2009 ARRA American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (original and enhanced). In particular is the Extended Dept. of Defense HAP Homeowners Assistance Program which provides relief in the event deployment or relocation creates a financial hardship due to the decline in local real estate market values.

If you need assistance, please contact me. I'm a voice for foreclosure prevention ... You have options, I can help.

Kim Novak, CDPE: Certified Distressed Property Expert
(801) 726-1443 (800) 977-7835 kimnovak@remax.net
www.UtahHouseandHome.com

NOTE: 18% is almost 1 in 5 properties (read: real live people who are your neighbors, friends, family, co-workers ...)

NOTE: 23% is almost 1 in 4 properties

NOTE: "Fewer Homeowners Underwater"? Make sure you read the complete update. Fewer is not fewer in Utah, fewer is fewer compared to the national average. Remember, all politics, and real estate, is local.

NOTE: Like I keep telling my clients, "better" is a relative term. Now I can add "fewer" to the same list.

NOTE: "Utah's foreclosure rate will not rise as dramatically in the coming year". TRANSLATION: Utah's foreclosure rate IS going to rise in the coming year, just not as dramatically as ??? ... compared to last year? compared to Nevada's 65% underwaterness?

This type of "press release" is a terribly misleading disservice to us as dues paying members of the SLBR, our clients and the public at large.

Federal Tax Credits 2008 - 2009 Part I - 2009/2010 Part 2

First, there was the 2008 Housing & Economic Recovery Act $7,500 "tax credit" that is, in fact, an interest free loan that must be re-paid over a 15-year period. This program was effective April 8, 2008 and ended December 31, 2008. Then came the 2009 American Recovery & Reinvestment Act $8,000 tax credit. What I call a "just kidding" moment. If you closed on your home on December 31, 2008, you have to pay your tax credit back, but if you closed on January 1, 2009 you don't have to ... plus you get an extra $500. And then, adding insult to injury, the extended and expanded tax credits of the 2009 Homeownership & Business Assistance Act threw a cold bucket of water on a real estate market just regaining a faint pulse.  Great news for long term homeowners and the expanded $6,500 tax credit that benefits them, as long as they close after November 6, 2009 (too bad for you if it was even one day before that). I've had clients who felt ripped off both times. Every extension, every revision of these tax credit programs, creates an undercurrent of discontent for those home buyers who could have benefited from the newest version, but closed one day too late, or early, as the case may be.

Utah's Contribution: HomeRun Grant edition 1 and 2:

The original HomeRun Grant was a brainstorm. It provided a $6,000 ARRA funded incentive to buyers to purchase a newly constructed home, one that was already completed, and gave builders an opportunity to move their spec homes and close out high cost construction loans. This program had the side benefit of quickly removing the greatest competition to existing home sales - new homes. Then came Utah's own "just kidding" moment. The introduction of HomeRun2 Grant. Only this time, it was $4,000 and the home could be at any stage of construction. And a buyer could already be under contract on a new build and still take advantage of the program. The end result?  A significant portion of Utah's HomeRun2 Grants were consumed by home buyers already under contract to purchase a home, doing little to stimulate new sales.

In my opinion, tax credits have become subsidies distorting the real estate market. I believe that any further extension or expansion of this program, with the exception of those benefits due our military, will be counterproductive. I say it's time to help homeowners. Figure out how to give them $8,000 so that they don't have to sell as a short sale. There are a lot of well loved homes in excellent condition that would make ideal homes for new buyers, creating move up buyers for other homes, that can't be sold now because the sellers are upside down in their mortgages. A short sale may benefit a new buyer, but it eliminates another (for two years at least). Why not consider helping sellers with a monetized tax credit so that they can sell their home at market value, stop or minimize short sales and foreclosures eroding property values, get buyers into "non-distressed" homes and turn that seller into another buyer, thus propelling the market forward.

Where do we go on April 30th next year?

 

 

Kim Novak, CDPE Certified Distressed Property Expert

* Only 15% of the current single family home MLS listings are under contract
* 8% of those listings under contract are "short sales"
* At least 22% of the listings under contract are vacant
* The median price of the listings under contract is $225,300
* The median price of active listings is $272,450
* There is an 20.9% disparity between what sellers want to sell their homes for and what buyers are ready, willing and able to pay for a home

Source: Wasatch Front Regional Multiple Listing Service

Disclaimer: I use an internet feedback service, FeedbackCentral.com, to obtain input from Buyer's Agents after showing one of my client's homes. This allows the Buyer's Agent the option to uninhibitably hit "delete" if they do not wish to respond, and provides a venue that satisfies my clients' desire to know what potential buyers, and their agents, think about their home in comparison to others that they've just seen.

My #1 Policy: I represent the buyer, so I am not going to share anything with the seller's agent that may negatively affect my client's negotiating strength (just in case they make an offer on the home). I have used a feedback comment seemingly inane as, "my clients loved the second kitchen because their mother is going to live with them - this is the nicest one they've seen" to my seller client's advantage when an offer from that same buyer was presented.

Policy #2: If you are the listing agent's assistant calling me for feedback, please don't bother. Why should I give feedback to someone who has never even seen the home him/herself? You are taking up my valuable time and precious cell phone minutes for naught. I suggest instead that you take a tour of your boss's listings and provide him/her with your own feedback. If you do this often enough, you may become a more valuable team member because you'll be experienced enough to assist your boss with CMAs.

Policy #3:  If you ask for price feedback, then I will tell you the same thing that I tell my own seller clients. "Homes are still selling. If your home is not sold yet (read "under contract"), then you are priced too high to sell right now." In today's market, it is ALL about price, followed by condition and location (the old mantra of "location, location, location" has been stood on its head). Homebuyers are becoming exponentially price savvy in this current real estate climate and advice from talking heads and those of us in the blogosphere abounds.

Exceptions to the rule (you knew it was coming): I will provide feedback relating to real estate matters. Like, if your keybox is located in the flowerbed with a sprinkler head pointing right at it. Like, if you have listed a home as having four bedrooms, but the 4th bedroom doesn't have a window, closet or door. Like, if your remarks section says that my client has to use the seller's title company (but that's a whole 'nuther topic).

Pet Peeve #1: Email a copy of the listing to me, don't call. I show an average of 21 homes to each of my buyer clients. I will not remember yours without a visual aid.

Pet Peeve #2: Leaving me a message like, "Hey Kim, it's Samantha with Biggs Real Estate. I have a question on a listing" when you want feedback. Yeah, that only works once before I know to screen your calls.

Pet Peeve #3: If you call me for feedback, and it is in my client's interest to provide it to you, and I do share their and my insight, please don't become argumentative or get incensed about my opinion - remember that you're the one that asked for it.

Anyway, you get the drift.

Kim Novak is a real estate broker with RE/MAX Masters in Salt Lake City and Layton, Utah. She holds a BSBA with an emphasis in Sales & Marketing and has achieved the designations of ABR: Accredited Buyer Representative, CRS: Certified Residential Specialist, CSP: Certified New Home Sales Professional, GRI: Graduate of the Realtor® Institute, SRES: Seniors Real Estate Specialist and ePRO: Internet Professional. Licensed in 1995, Kim has closed over 500 sales during her full time real estate career. ActiveRain Profile   LinkedIn Profile   Facebook Me!

Direct Phone:    801.726.1443
Direct Toll Free: 800.977.7835
Direct Fax:        866.541.2392

kim@utahhouseandhome.com

www.UtahHouseandHome.com

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