Buy a House Fast

While investors are an important part of the housing picture, opening up home ownership to American families is the avowed intent of most Federal programs.  In the current environment, bank owned homes that are priced right to appeal to families are often the target of investors, who use their greater experience and greater pool of funds to outbid home owners.  This takes many homes out of the grasp of owner-occupants who tend to stabilize the neighborhoods.  Some investors buy homes to hold onto until the price increases, while buyers who live in the homes have a greater stake in maintaining them.

As a result of a new program unveiled in August by Fannie Mae (FNMA) in certain areas, individual home buyers, public entitles, non-profits, and certain for-profit entities that use public funds have the first option to look at and purchase FNMA properties during the first 15 days a property is on the market.  Offers from investors will be considered only after the first 15 days have passed.  After successful trials in Arizona, Minneapolis, and Florida, the program went public on November 24.

Some buyers who use Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program, HOME Investment Partnerships Program funds from HUD, local housing trust funds, or charitable foundation funds may also qualify for the following benefits:

In addition to First Look, buyers using NSP funds also gain a few other benefits:

• Deposit Waivers -Individual home buyers who have qualified for public funds  through NSP and want to purchase a Fannie Mae-owned property do not have to meet the usual earnest money/deposit requirement. Fannie Mae will now waive the earnest money/deposit requirement for public agencies who use public funds to purchase a Fannie Mae-owned property.    Deposits for these buyers can be as low as $500.
• Reserved Contract Period – Once seller receive an acceptable offer, buyers have the ability to renegotiate their offer after obtaining an NSP-required appraisal.
• Extra Time for Closing – Buyers receive up to 45 days to close — 15 days more than waht is usually allowed for purchases of Fannie Mae-owned properties.

See the Fannie Mae press release for more details.

This program provides prospective home owners with a clear shot to buy a foreclosed home, especially those who have been cleaning up their credit, saving their money, and positioning themselves to buy.  If you are interested in this program, Express Realty Services can help you find a qualifying property.  Aside from our foreclosure listings, we have a special stock of renovated, refurbished, or remodeled homes from our sister company Express Homebuyers.  Check out the many affordable home values we have to offer.

Lost in the Crowd?

When buying a home, you will likely become acquainted with a whole slew of real estate professionals.  From the realtor who helps you select a home to the listing agent who shows you some promising inventory, the experience can be difficult (and extremely frustrating) when any of these pivotal characters fail to meet your expectations.  One of the most controversial areas today is the whole appraisal process.

Help for the Weary

The folks over at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are doing their best to ensure that no one plays fast and loose with the appraisal process.  To that end, they’ve created a new code that holds appraisers to a higher standard of quality and professionalism. Sounds great, right? Well, it has already gotten serious backlash from people in the real estate business who believe stricter rules can only hurt an already struggling housing market.

As a result, Fannie and Freddie have tried to clarify what the new code means for homebuyers like you.  One major change outlined in the clarification document is the need for mortgage lenders to accept appraisals only from professionals with experience in the region in question.  Think about it: wouldn’t you want the appraisal coming from someone who knows the area your future home is in?

While communication between and real estate agents is permitted in the process (after all, realtors can be an excellent source of information), they cannot have a hand in selecting the appraiser.  The concern here is that a realtor eager to close a deal will select an appraiser they enjoy a mutually beneficial relationship, one willing to provide the estimate necessary for the transaction to be completed as quickly as possible.  Similar arrangements can often exist between appraisers and lenders, who have been known on occasion to lean on appraisers to overstate property values. While that may help a seller sell his house fast, it certainly won’t help when the buyer faces this dilemma: “I wanted to buy my house fast, but it didn’t meet appraisal. Now what do I do?”

Appraisal Delay or Consumer Protection?  You Decide which is Best.

Basically, Fannie and Freddie’s goal in creating a new code is to protect the homebuyer, and restore purity to the appraisal process.  Whatever delay these new measures may cause will be more than made up for by the increased confidence buyers will have in the accuracy and integrity of the professionals they turn to for an estimate.