Mortgage

Watching The Numbers

July 18th, 2008 Categories: Market Conditions, Mortgage

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If there’s any one thing that I’m not…it’s a statistician. Sometimes 2 plus 2 equals 4 however. I just make sure I don’t get all my information from Wall Street.

RISMEDIA, July 14, 2008-Amidst the gloom on Wall Street about housing someone forgot to check the stats. The National Association of Realtors® has now reported four straight months of rising housing prices, but it seems no one is listening.
According to NAR statistics, the median home price has fallen from a high of $230,200 in July 2006 to a low in February 2008 at $195,600, a drop of 15%. Since February, however, it has risen steadily every month. By May the index (which will be revised on July 24) had risen to $208,600, up $13,000 and a full 6.6%. Another indicator, the mean home price (otherwise known as the average home price), has also shown strength and has risen from a low of $242,000 also in February of this year to $253,100, a rise of $11,100 or 4.5%. It, too, has risen every month since February of this year.

We’ve been talking about foreclosures since they account for a big chunk of the inventory. I’ve actually gotten more leads and people starting their home search with the foreclosures. The fantasy of 1/2 price housing is very exciting. The reality is a little different.  Many realize quickly that by the time you buy them, fix them up and make something of them that they might be better off buying a non-foreclosure in the first place.

It’s a little different out in the suburbs where so many of the bank owned homes are relatively new, and have mostly cosmetics to deal with. In Vintage Vegas, many of the bank owned homes are truly broken down houses. I’m always on the hunt for the best HOUSE at the best price. But it scares me when someone without the resources or money AFTER THE CLOSING wants to by a “fixer-upper”. That’s what I call a big mistake!

The banks who own the foreclosures know this. That’s why we’re seeing the spread between list price and sale price on the foreclosure shrinking dramatically. I’ve been writing lots of offers on the foreclosures, (and getting some of the accepted). The banks are not jumping on any old offer that comes along. They’re stacking the offers, and trying to get a bidding war going. If that approach doesn’t work for them, then they’ll counter back a few thousand less than their list price.

We’re seeing the regular first time home buyer or sideline buyer jumping back into the water. The numbers have ALREADY shifted as the article I quoted above from RISMEDIA notes.  

 

 

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How Tight Is The Rental Market?

July 2nd, 2008 Categories: Las Vegas Real Estate News, Market Conditions, Mortgage

I don’t manage rental property, so I rarely advertise or even think about them. Yesterday at 3pm, we made the decision to take 3212 Brazos off of the market and rent it out instead. The seller had gone as low as he was willing and able to go in trying to sell it.

I changed the flyer on VVV to reflect the rental status, and posted the flyer on Craig’s List. The first call came 3 minutes later. and then another and then another. 11 calls by 6pm when I went to show the property to 4 of the callers.

3 of them want it. Almost every person I talked to had the same story to tell of rentals that they call on being already gone in a matter of hours.

I explained to them that there’s a huge shortage of rentals because so much of what was once rental inventory is now foreclosure inventory. Many of the previous owners who have lost their homes to foreclosure, or are about to, have caused an unusually high amount of people looking to rent again. 4 of the 11 calls yesterday were from people in foreclosure who know they’ll have to be out of their home in the next few weeks.

I saw a banner on an apartment complex yesterday that said “FORECLOSURE FORGIVENESS”. They’re having a heyday filling their units with people who’s credit was now ruined because of the foreclosure mess.

Rents have risen 25% in the last year as a result. A year ago, the seller on Brazos and I talked about 1000 to 1100 a month. Yesterday we put it out at 1300 a month and look at the response we got.

I’m not sure where it will balance out, as most of the people I’m currently selling homes to right now are giving up on being tenants and are buying their first homes. The investors who normally buy property to rent out are being hit really hard by the lenders and are having to put down 20% or more, and even then at interest rates at about 8%. There’s not a lot of investors buying at the moment.

In the meanwhile, it’s a landlords market. If you’ve been renting for a long time, you might want to put the upcoming rent increase that you are probably going to be hit with into the equation. Between the tax deductions, and the drastically reduced prices for homes, it’s probably time to start thinking about owning instead of renting.

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New Charges Added And Four More Suspects In Las Vegas Mortgage Fraud Scheme

June 20th, 2008 Categories: Las Vegas Real Estate News, Mortgage

Vintage Vegas was especially hard hit by the alleged Mortgage Fraud scheme by the owners of Distinctive Realty.

5^th Place, 6^th Street, 16^th Street, 8^th Place, Cochran, several in McNeil and several in Paradise Palms all had homes sell in 05 and 06 where the deals looked fishy to me. There were at least a dozen homes that I’m aware of, and there were probably plenty more in Vintage Vegas. I guess I was lucky to have never have never been involved in a transaction with them.

The RJ has the whole story.

The problem with mortgage fraud and inflated appraisals is that it helped to bring the “suburban foreclosure crisis” back into Vintage Vegas. We were all fooled by the prices that homes were selling for. Where the suburban crisis was caused by rampant speculation, we were unknowingly plagued by rampant thievery.

Just as all home values in a neighborhood are affected by a foreclosure, we were misled as to the value of homes based on sales that were involved in the conspiracy.

The other problem with mortgage fraud is that it helped fuel the frenzy of 05 and 06, and the subsequent “reversal” of fortunes that we’re experiencing today.

I think life sentences are in order.

 

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Local Existing-Home Sales Surge

June 19th, 2008 Categories: Las Vegas Real Estate News, Market Conditions, Mortgage

Today’s RJ has an article worth reading:

Local Existing-Home Sales Surge by Jennifer Robison

Here’s some of the most interesting quotes and statistics:

“May data for the Las Vegas housing market suggests that recovery has begun for the resale market,” SalesTraq President Larry Murphy said.

Thanks partly to a bumper crop of foreclosures on the market in Las Vegas — about a third of resale listings in the city are in default — prices have plummeted 22.5 percent, or $65,000, from their October 2006 peak of $290,000. The lower prices are summoning buyers and investors back to the market, Smith said.

And:

Plus, the median price of single-family homes sold through the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors halted its yearlong slide in the spring, with prices rising slightly from April to May. Single-family homes sold through the association’s members went for a median of $236,692 in May, up from $235,875 in April.

Murphy said three indicators would signal recovery in the housing market: a decline in inventories, an increase in sales and a marketwide halt to falling prices.

The first two have happened, but not the third.

Of course it’s not all wine and roses again, especially if you’re selling, but at least now I can actually try to help a seller figure out the value of their home. For the last 9 months, traditional sellers have been chasing a falling market. The “median price” might continute to go down since the banks are now giving away the foreclosure inventory, but the nice homes on nice streets are at least stabilizing.

I agree with Larry Murphy, who I’ve known for almost 20 years, and who’s opinion I highly respect, that:

“The bad news is, it’s not going to turn around overnight,” Smith said. “It’s going to take a while. Things will be flat, at best, for a while. If there’s any good news, it’s that anybody who can qualify for a home has the buying opportunity of a lifetime.”

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Smooth Real Estate Transactions Do Happen -

June 10th, 2008 Categories: Las Vegas Real Estate News, Mortgage

We did the walk thru yesterday at my 1400 Manzanita listing. I met the buyer for the first time, and she raised an interesting point. I’m paraphrasing a little but basically she said:

“I’ve been reading VeryVintageVegas regularly, and YOU SCARED ME TO DEATH with the horror stories of some of the recent closings that you’ve had”. She turned to the sellers and told them “don’t you dare try to extort more money at the end”.

We all had a good laugh, but it got me thinking.

I’m trying to ENCOURAGE my readership to buy a house. The last thing I want is to be scaring you off. Yes, it’s a challenge in many cases to get the loan process finalized these days, but it’s well worth the effort and the frustration if things do go crazy.

Home ownership is still the best path to accumulating personal wealth; having the peace of mind that comes with stable affordable payments; pride of ownership; tax deductions; and what will soon be the norm again, which is slow stable yearly increases in the value of the home.

Even the people I talk to who bought in ‘05 and ‘06 with sub prime loans and are now in foreclosure ask me the same question. “When will my credit be good enough again to buy another home”. Answer: 1 to 2 years.

I just looked back at the 14 closings that I’ve done this year. 8 of them were smooth as can be. Manzanita looks like it’s going to be the 9^th smooth one. The other 6 were fraught with twists and turns and roadblocks. But we did get thru them. Some closed a little late, some caused some real panic for all involved. But ALL of them eventually closed.

There’s still 6 transactions on the board that’s waiting to close. One of them is having some challenges, and that’s related to the source of the buyer’s down payment money. It’s not the bank or the appraisal or any of the things that have caused problems on the tough deals. We even have a plan for the problem one, and I’m not afraid that the deal will die, it will just be delayed while waiting for an extra paycheck.

The other day, at the end of the rant, I told you that:

THERE’S A MORAL TO THESE STORIES!

Even though buyers are now buying and the sellers are now selling (at no where even close to what they’d have gotten 2 years ago), the BANKS AND LENDERS ARE STILL MAKING IT HARD TO BORROW.

Whether you’re one of the many people I’m working with, or one of the very many who haven’t contacted me yet, but are reading along while you get ready to…

YOU’VE GOT TO HAVE YOUR DUCKS IN A ROW. You’ve got to have thick skin. You’ve got to have a backup plan in place ahead of your moving date in case things like this happen to you. We’re eventually getting the deals closed, but contract dates and moving truck dates mean NOTHING TO THE BANKS.

The best way to avoid as much of the potential problems as possible is to be working with a truly experienced, dedicated and full time team of real estate and lending professionals. We’ll not only do everything possible in advance so that problems don’t arise, we’ll work diligently, ethically and intelligently to solve any problems that do come up.

We’d like you to choose us as your team. We’d even like you to refer someone to us that you know. Give us a call or send us an email, and we’ll get to work for you.

Tomorrow SHOULD be the closing on Manzanita. So far, not a single whack-a-mole has popped up, and I don’t expect any. Congratulations to another new Vintage Vegas resident.

  

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Real Estate Market Picks Up Steam According To NAR

June 9th, 2008 Categories: Las Vegas Real Estate News, Market Conditions, Mortgage

Diane Olick covers the housing market at CNBC. This is the report she did this morning covering the April “under contract” numbers according to The National Association of Realtors.

NAR reports a 6.3% jump in homes going to contract. “Contracts have picked up notably”. In the west, the number was 8.3%. The affordability index is expected to rise 15% this year.  

This certainly backs up the anecdotal evidence that I’ve been presenting based just on my little one man Real Estate Practice. The numbers in my office are equally exciting. In the geographic areas of Vintage Vegas, we’re seeing the number of homes under contract hitting the 20% number compared to the number of listings. All last winter the ratio of homes under contract to homes for sale hovered between 8 and 10%.

Of course if you’ll listen closely to her report, you’ll notice that she mentions that lending standards are as tight as can be, which translates to:

It’s a buyer’s market — IF YOU CAN GET A LOAN!

Yes, money is available to buy a home, but you’ve still got to prove your income, show reasonably good credit, and make a down payment. There is one way however, using FHA loans, and seller contributions that you can become a homeowner with less than $1000. out of pocket. Of course, as with all aspects of life, the more money you have, the better off you are.

If it’s saving up the money for a down payment that’s stopping you from grabbing one of the bargains, then let us show you how it works.

If it’s your credit that’s holding you back, let show you how to fix it.

What’s missing in the mortgage market right now are loans for the tip earners, and the multiple income families where only one of them has credit that’s good enough. When those loans become available, there will be an avalanche of buyers hitting the market. However if you’ve got real good credit, and a real good down payment, there’s still some loans where they won’t look at your income.

In any case, if you’re wondering what to do, I suggest that you call me or one of the lenders that I recommend. We’ll help get you on the RIGHT road.

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The Underwriter “Forgot” To Ask For The….

May 30th, 2008 Categories: Las Vegas Real Estate News, Market Conditions, Mortgage

The underwriter leaned back in her chair. Her thoughts weren’t on the stack of files in front of her. She was worried about losing her home. She bought it two years ago, you see. In July, as a matter of fact.

Back then, everyone you talked to was an expert on Real Estate.  Many of them even had a real estate license. Some actually were experts.  Some were just real experienced, and some had gotten their license a few months before to make some easy bucks helping their parents buy two or 3 “investment flips” with their home equity loan against the house in California. There was NO DISCUSSION going on anywhere about what happens if the “bubble bursts”.

It wasn’t hard to find someone whose cousin’s friend’s brother made a killing with a house flip. He bought it in the beginning of 2005 and sold it 6 or 8 months later, with a pretty hundred grand profit. It was a funny story because it was true. It was humorous to think about a house getting multiple offers on the first day of the listing. We heard a story such as that just about every single day.  

Our underwriter…remember her? Her rate adjusts next month. Business hasn’t been so good lately, and they’ve cut her hours. When she bought said house, she was lucky enough to be the high bidder. There were either 5 or 6 people competing with her. It only cost her $14,000 over the list price. That was a bargain. She’d heard of people paying 20 or 30,000 dollars more than the seller wanted. And to think, she didn’t have to put up any money upfront!

She’s in the mortgage business. She’s the one who gets the final say so over whether someone gets a loan or not. She’s not dumb. Things haven’t quite worked out the way she planned it two years ago.

Her sister, the waitress with a real estate license, hasn’t sold a house since she sold the house in question to our underwriter. The waitress/realtor told her that her house wasn’t worth enough to be able to refinance, now-a-days. Bummer. She’s been trying to get some underwriter at some mortgage company somewhere to make her a new loan. It’s not happening, and she’s scared. She knows why. She’s an underwriter, after all.

SHE’S ALSO VERY ANGRY, and feels so helpless. She wants a way to get even. She wants to get back at the world for being so cruel to her and her family.

The slap on the head idea came in an instant. A little inner voice caused the following plan to get launched:

I’ve got a dozen files on my desk that I have to look at today. Screw them all!

“I’ll nip pick every single letter of every single word of every piece of paper in those files.

“I’ll question everything! I’ll make the buyer and loan officers write up explanation letters about that 128 dollar deposit in their checking account 4 months ago.”

“I’ll find dozens of things in this dozen files that I can play mean about.” 

“I’ll make the realtors draw up addendums and make them run around getting them signed by all parties stating that:

“the pillow shams and bed spread that match the bedroom carpet and drapes are OF NO VALUE TO THE SELLER, and the fact that they are left at the property does not constitute a contribution by the seller towards the buyer’s closing costs. Furthermore, All prior references to said bedspread and pillow shams in the original offer as well as all subsequent counter offers and addendums are hereby nullified”.

“I’ll tell my assistant to tell the loan processor to tell the loan officer to tell the realtors who will then tell the buyers and sellers and moving companies and escrow officers and utility companies that the file is “NEXT IN LINE TO BE THE TOP FOLDER ON MY DESK”. In reality, I’m going to have my assistant start that rumor about each of those stupid dozen files that are on my desk

I’m going to lie to them and keep them dangling. I’m going to make them all pay for the misery I’m going thru. I’m going to PROMISE that I will respond to something before I go to lunch. I’ll remember it on my way home from work.

“That oughta teach’m!” our darling underwriter said to herself as she sat up straight and got back to work. She grabbed the next folder in the stack…. 

The Realtor who’s folder she grabbed was up late one evening. He was just typing his little heart out while pondering why this file hasn’t come out of underwriting yet. They’ve met every stupid little condition after ridiculous stipulation. All the BIG IMPORTANT THINGS were taken care of weeks ago. Big important things such as great income, excellent credit, 20%down payment, job security, excellent savings beyond what was needed to buy a home. The Appraisal. Those kinds of things.  We keep giving and giving. And waiting and waiting. And our f#*%%@ underwriter keeps stalling and stalling. If we don’t get an answer in the morning, no one has quite figured out what to do with the furniture. It’s on a truck on its way to Las Vegas.

He thinks to himself, How could this be happening? Why? Why? Why?

Maybe our Realtor let his imagination get away from him a little. But he’s willing to make a bet he’s not far off.  He can’t think of any better way to exlain it.

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Good News And Bad News For The Las Vegas Real Estate Market

May 21st, 2008 Categories: Las Vegas Real Estate News, Mortgage

The good news:

Every agent I talk to is selling more homes. The April numbers from GLVAR (Greater Las Vegas Association Of Realtors showed for the first time since 2005 an increase of same month compared to a year ago  sales for April ‘08 over April ‘07.

Foreclosure filings fell in April compared to previous months. New Bank Owned Listings also fell.

The doom and gloom and end of the world headlines and news reports seemed to have slowed to a trickle. They were a sunammi during the last half of 2007 and the first 2 months of 2008.

One major bank just took off the “declining market” down payment premium that applied to Fannie and Freddie loans. The rest of the banks are expected to follow suite this week.

FHA slightly lowered the upfront mortgage insurance rate for borrowers with excellent credit scores.

The ever optimistic, and in the recent past overly optimistic National Association of Realtors now says:

Realtors Expect Home Sales And Prices To Pick Up

05-16-2008 7:30 AM (Washington, DC) — Las Vegas could see both home sales and prices going up during the second half of the year. That’s the prediction from chief economist Lawrence Yun with the National Association of Realtors. Yun says the recovery will depend on the market, but he believes Vegas, along with Phoenix and Miami, could see home prices go up as much as 50 percent over the next five years. Yun believes middle American cities that have been stable over the past few years, such as Cincinnati and Milwaukee, will see home price gains of 20 to 30 percent by 2013. He also believes with the sub prime mortgage market drying up, the housing market will “strengthen” and see a “steady uptick” in the coming months. The NAR says the nation is poised for a home sale gain due to large supplies and low interest rates.

The BAD NEWS?

It’s a buyer’s market IF YOU CAN GET A LOAN.

It’s still the lending industry that’s the problem. The guidelines and loan programs are still changing EVERY day. The underwriters are NIT PICKING the loans. A good example is a loan officer got asked to have the buyer document a 120. deposit into their checking account. It was just loose change, and cash and a 100. win on a video poker machine at the 7–11. How do you document that kind of triviality?

Here’s another good example of the silliness of going “absolutely” by the book. I’m involved in this particular sale.  FHA requires 2 years of rent history. The buyer will have been in the same apartment for 2 years NEXT MONTH. His old apartment complex got sold, and the new company doesn’t have any records of the old company. We’ve only got 1 year and 11 months of documentation. The Underwriter refuses to make an exception, so the whole deal is suspended for another month until the current apartment’s 2 years can be documented.

Now that we’re selling homes again, especially the “NOT BANK OWNED” homes, we’re struggling with the appraisals. For example, we got the appraisal to come in on one of my deals. I was expecting to get loan docs today. Instead we got notice from the underwriter that she’s QUESTIONING the appraisal! She sent a note back that says she wants to see:

“Comparable properties sold within ONE HALF MILE and No more than 3 months old”

Six months and 1 mile are the generally accepted rule. But sales have been so sparse for the last 6 months that there’s hardly anything to work with.

This issue will relieve itself in a month or two once we get some of these new sales closed, but in the meanwhile, it’s a trap that we have to watch for. The sale price is 21% less than the home would have sold for 2 years ago. The deal makes sense to the seller, the buyer, the agents and  the loan officer. But the underwriter holds all the cards.

My broker reminded me the other day that the definition of an “ARMS LENGTH TRANSACTION” has now been modified. It used to be “what a willing buyer and seller agree to”. Now it’s “what a willing buyer and seller agree to, AND the bank will loan on”. In this case we’re already negotiating between the buyer and seller on the “what if” the appraisal review” cuts the value. Everyone’s packed and ready to move at the end of the month. We’ll see how it plays out.

A friend of mine is in contract to buy a bank owned repo. By definition, the bank should have clean title since everything else got wiped out in the trustee sale. I don’t know the exact details, but somehow, 2 different title companies can’t provide title insurance as there’s still a cloud on the title that the previous owner has to clear. Another trap that shouldn’t be there. (BTW, if she cancels, there’s a terrific deal in Paradise Palms begging for someone who can wait out the cleaning up of the title work).

The Bottom Line:

We’re writing all those new deals with 45 to 60 day escrows instead of the normal 30. Why? So that we have plenty of time for appraisal reviews and rewrites, stupid trivial documentation requests and all the other now inevitable delays.

So, we’re at the bottom of the market now. It’ll probably be flat for awhile, so the “we’re waiting for the bottom” buyers will be out in force. And most importantly, we’ll now be able to start telling sellers what their home is REALLY worth.

 

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Jack LeVine RANTS About The Banks, And How They Make The Housing Crisis Even Worse

April 25th, 2008 Categories: Las Vegas Real Estate News, Mortgage

This is part 3 of the series I started on Tuesday. RAVE # 1 And RANT #2 aren’t far below, but linking to my own writing is good for that stupid SEO stuff I ranted about yesterday.

Recovery In The Las Vegas Housing Market IS Possible If The Banks Would Stop Being Obstructionists

The very banks that were the instruments of the “bubble”  are being the BIGGEST OBSTRUCTIONISTS in allowing us to pull out of the “housing slump”.

There I said it.

Yes, there are  a lot of other guilty parties. Most of them crashed and burned already, as in the speculators and those involved in corruption or fraud. Not enough of them are in jail yet. A lot of the “good times” Realtors and Loan Officers from a few years ago are waiting tables, selling cars or dealing cards again.  

But this rant is about the banks and lending institutions. The federal government (that be us) has released gazillions, give or a take a few, of dollars into the system so that the banks can LOAN AGAIN!

And the BANKS AREN’T DOING IT. Lending FREELY is what got us into the mess, so I’m not advocating that. What I am advocating is THAT THEY NOT KILL DEALS BY TELLING THE APPRAISERS TO BE ULTRA CONSERVATIVE. Nice houses on nice streets, in nice neighborhoods that are not crappy short sales or foreclosures are exactly that!

They are very often not Crappy,

They are NOT Short sales

The seller is not a bank who’s desperate to get a home off their books.

The Buyer can afford what they agreed to pay on a monthly basis, based on their credit, income, and downpayment.   

The buyer and seller agree that the value is equal to both parties. In other words, there’s an ARMS LENGTH TRANSACTION.

Here’s an example of what I mean.

The buyer and seller agreed to a price, based on supply, demand, condition and timing. The buyer perceived it to be the best house for their needs, and at a price they can afford COMPARED TO ALL THE OTHER HOMES FOR SALE THAT THEY COULD HAVE CHOSEN. The seller is being freed up from the property to buy a different property.

The home is particularly nice, is meticulously landscaped, and on a very nice street in a very nice neighborhood.

The Realtor(s) involved (yes, I’m one of them) boldly make the case that an appraisal that’s 30,000 below what BUYER and THE SELLER agree is a fair price for that particular house, is lacking ANY COMMON SENSE, LOGIC, or REASONABLENESS.

That’s the REAL rant.

Remember the description of the property that I used above?

HERE’S A PICTURE OF THE PROPERTY NEXT DOOR TO THE COMP THAT WAS USED IN THE LOWBALL APPRAISAL.  

Much of the rest of the street looks the same way as this house.

I ask you? Does this look like “particularly nice”, “meticulously landscaped”, “on a very nice street” in a “very nice neighborhood”?

I don’t think so, either. But the appraiser says that the “nice” house is worth the same as the comp he used. Yes, it was the same square footage, mainly because of the crappy GARAGE CONVERSION.

I’m really trying to not disclose the subject property unless the current buyer an seller let me. I know that they both read what I write on a regular basis. If they give me permission, I’ll update this post to show the actual addresses and photos of the comp as well as the subject property. One of the other comps is on a similarly bad street in what I call the “undiscovered” neighborhoods of Vintage Vegas.

Even The BUYER agreed that the comps that were used were unfair, and not “Comparable”. That’s what the abbreviation “Comp” stands for. The buyer asked the lender for an “appraisal review”. The bank and the appraiser ate up 10 days only to come back to us and tell us that they stand by their appraisal, EVEN though a house that was 700 square feet smaller closed for MORE THAN THE APPRAISAL only 3 weeks ago.

The bank says their hands are tied by their rules. They’re allowed to go with the review number, BUT, it has to be by the same appraiser that did it in the first place. Gee, I can just imagine the poor appraiser willingly admitting that he screwed up, or willing putting is livelihood at risk by going against the banks demand for “ultra conservative” appraisals.   

The Banks are DEMANDING that the appraisers be ultra conservative. The banks rules won’t allow a second opinion. The bank won’t allow the Realtors to educate the appraisers about local niche pockets of Real Estate such as Vintage Vegas. This is not unique to this one bank. I’m hearing similar stories about all the banks.

2 years ago, the banks were DEMANDING that the appraisers come in at the rocket fueled increasing sales prices. Can you say MASSIVE PROFITS from making massive amounts of new loans? The same way they have OVER corrected on the lending standards, they’ve OVER corrected on their appraisal standards. The bank now refuses to do the loan except at the lowball, ignorant, illogical, and unfairly low value that the appraiser put on it.

There’s money to loan again, but the banks don’t really want to do it. If they would ease up just a little, so that tip employees could get loans again, so that arms length transactions between intelligent, qualified buyers and sellers can get through, then we could work our way out of the “housing slump”. Price HAVE come down to affordable levels, and buyers want to buy now, if the banks would only start to lend again.

Hopefully very soon, there will be a different lender and a different appraiser involved. Hopefully there will be by the time you read this. And hopefully eventually, there will be a happy buyer, seller, Realtor, and neighbors again.

Real Estate Right Now Is A Roller Coaster of Drama that’s on the deck of a cruise ship that’s bouncing along through choppy waters. GOOD SEASONED Real Estate Agents like myself are ready and able to help you get safely back in your bed in your OWN HOME.

Saturday, In Part 4, I’m going to RANT about the other thing the banks are doing that are making things worse. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: I wrote this piece on Tuesday. But by the time I was ready to publish it:

There’s a new lender that’s a mortgage BROKER, instead of a bank. There’s a new appraiser. Even without seeing the house, the new appraiser says “no problem” with the original sales price. That was my position from the get go.

We’re back on schedule, everyone’s nerves are calmed, and the market is starting to stabilize.

Mortgage Brokers are an entirely different animal than actual banks. Mortgage Brokers have hundreds of sources of loans, and are willing, able and actually WANT to make loans.

And anyone who’s thinking of using a bank with a stage coach logo ought to think twice, if you really, actually,  intend to get a loan to buy a house, now that they’re affordable again.