Alot of buyers today who are looking to purchase a home almost always say I am looking for a good deal, a foreclosure.  I then further ask them why do you think that a foreclosure is the only good deal out there?  They typically say, well I want to buy a home that is undervalued and live there for a while and build equity.  I always explain to the buyers that first with foreclosures Sellers Disclosures are not required which means that the Bank has not lived in the property and the property is offered as a  as is" condition.  This may not mean anything at the time and it might very well not ever be a problem but when things go wrong there is no one to point the finger at.  That is the first point the second point is that banks are not always as negotiable as someone needing to sell for whatever reason or a corporate owned home where they can be extremely negotiable.  Foreclosures alot of times are not a turn key property in many cases they have not been taken care of and sometimes the property has been raided of fixtures, cooper pluming etc.....   A short sale is probably a better option since the homeowner still owns the property and in most cases are still living there and they have reached an agreement with the bank that they will not pay off the full loan amount.  This occurs usually becasue they have no equity in the home and the home is not worth on the "Market" what they owe the bank.  Usually banks are cooperative because they would rather see the property sell then go into foreclosure.  Of course the sellers have to be in good standing with the bank and in good communications.  Hope this helps someone understand foreclosures better.

Ann Byer

248-787-7895

www.annbyerhomes.com

sold@annbyerhomes.com 

     Is it a good time to buy?  You better believe it and not only because home prices are flat or because sellers are willing to negotiate but because no one can predict what the mortgage market will look like "later". Now is full of knowns where later is full of unknowns with all the restrictions taking place. 

     Mortgage markets are seizing and lenders have no choice but to limit what they will lend and to whom. Lender are going overboard with all their restrictions and changes in guidelines it makes it very difficult for a Realtor to sell a home these days but what is worse is getting that message to the buyers.  For some time now all I ever hear is it hasn't bottomed out yet I think I will wait until it does and not realizing what is about to hit them soon into the future.  If they wait too long they might not even be in a position to buy because no one will lend them the money.  I can't tell you how many times guidelines have happened and then has totally changed the picture for my buyer and in some cases they missed the boat they can't buy.  What's going on!!!! 

    One of the major changes major changes are expect mortgages to be more credit score-based .  It used to be where a score in the 600 hundreds was considered good now you are expected to have a minimum score of 700 and your interest rate is directly related to your credit score and fees you pay are directly related to your credit score.  

     Right now it is still fairly good to get a loan but soon mortgage companys are going to completely change the way they do business due to all the losses they incured and the American Dream might not be available to everyone for some time.  This if anything should be a good motivater for your buyers to get off the fence and buy buy buy!!  We hope at least.  Home ownership isn't available in every Country in the world and it is infact the one things where one can accumulate wealth in a up swing market and make some dreams come true like send a kid to college etc.  Therefore, because of this I am passionate in getting as many people as possible into a home where they can start to build a nest egg.  Now some negative people might think well that's a funny joke just look at the declines we have been experiencing but my respose is what goes down must go up and at least you get a tax break from buying a home unlike renting.

Ann Byer