Life & Real Estate in Eugene, Springfield & Lane County, Oregon

Roundabouts, Around About Issaquah

The new Roundabout is open in Issaquah at the intersection of East Lake Sammamish Parkway and SE 43^rd Street.  It's a bit different from the single lane Roundabouts in nearby Sammamish.  This is the second roundabout in Issaquah; the other is on West Lake Sammamish Parkway, near I-90. 

These are two lane roundabouts.  The two lane version requires you to know which lane to be in before you enter.  Once you understand how a Roundabout works, they are not difficult to maneuver.  There is no reason to get stuck like Clark Griswold in European Vacation.

The basic rules of a roundabout are

•1.       Slow Down when approaching and be prepared to stop before entering

•2.       Traffic in the circle has the right of way

•3.       Yield to your left when entering

•4.       Wait for an opening before entering

•5.       Once in the circle, do not "let people in" the traffic behind you is not prepared to stop

•6.       If you miss your turn, just go around again.

The City of Issaquah posted this video, produced by the State of Washington and The City of Lacey with more details of how to safely maneuver this two lane roundabout.

Did you like this post?  Do you know someone else who might?  Do you know anyone who might benefit from our services?  Please pass this along to family or friends or contact us, we love to help.

Dan Tabit       206-310-8629    425-868-SOLD(7653)  DanTabit@Northstone.net

One stop Real Estate & Mortgage Services Serving Sammamish, Issaquah, Redmond, Bellevue, Mercer Island and the greater Seattle area.   WA LO License #39789

Short Sales- HAFA explained- this is the third part in our series on analyzing the HAFA guidelines. 

Today I started getting links and calls from Real estate agents around the county and even two agents from Miami. They all were saying, this is great. Did you read the Sunsentinal today? They say that short sales are only going to take ten days now! Yeah! Right! What planet did they just fall off of to believe that is even remotely possible. Oh, but this is what the government is forcing the banks to do. Yeah! Right! Again! NOT! 

This ten day approval time is being taken out of context. I am sure that many in the media are quoting this statement without preface to get readership and get folks excited and then read their paper more. I left a comment- Did you read the 43 pages of the HAFA guidelines?

Why are you giving false hope to homeowners who are in a short sale situation or will need to go into the short sale situation soon? 

Please read the series I am writing in regards to HAFA. 

Here is the first post: The Truth about HAFA Part I

Here is the second post: Defining HAFA Part II

Know Your Facts About HAFA Before You Blog it. 

In this post I want to clear up the rumor that lenders are going to have to approve short sales within ten days. This needs to have a qualifying statement. 

The ten day time frame is AFTER a lot of other things have transpired up to that point. 

On page 8 of the HAFA Guidelines it states: 

'Approval or Disapproval of Sale- Within ten business days of receipt of the RASS and all the required attachments, the servicer must indicate its approval or disapproval of the proposed sale by signing the appropriate section of the RASS and mailing it to the borrower." 

So this does not mean that from the time of the offer to the time of the acceptance or rejection has to be ten days. It means from the point in time that everything is done on the file, the package is in, the BPO is done, the borrower is qualified for the HAFA program, the offer is turned in and the HUD meets the net the servicer is looking for. 

That is obviously not a ten day closing or a ten day short sale. Let's just use some common sense. If you ever have done a short sale with Bank of America you know that most of the time it takes months to do a short sale. There is no way they can implement a system in which you go from start to finish in ten days. Remember, the investor still has to approve most files. Just ordering, receiving and analyzing a rush BPO takes a week. 

When something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. 

The next part of the problem is that these guidelines are for non GSEs. Freddie mac and Fannie mae are not going to use these guidelines. They are special (or so they think they are) and will come up with their own guidelines. The problem with that is 8 out of every ten short sales we do- are GSE mortgage backed securities. Those short sales don't qualify for the HAFA program. That is over 60% of all the mortgages in this country. 

In order to be considered for the HAFA program: 

 

• The home must be the principle residence of the homeowner.
• The first mortgage must have taken out on or before January 1, 2009. 
• The mortgage is delinquent of will be in the foreseeable future- showing impending delinquency. 
• The unpaid balance owed on the first mortgage can not be more than $729,750. 
• The monthly mortgage payment has to be more than 31 percent of the homeowner's gross income. 

 

While it remains to be seen if these new HAFA guidelines will create any shortening of the time that it takes to get short sales from contract to closing it is more important for agents to understand the short sale process itself. 

Also, if you do not qualify for this HAFA program- that does not mean you can do a short sale. We will just go through different channels. 

Agents need to get educated in short sales if they are to do them. This is a great niche for those agents who have tough skin and are patient and understanding. If you are good with your communication skills and shine with your negotiation skills; then short sales may just become your best niche ever. 

 

   

 

To  view Florida Short Sales- Click here. We know Palm Beach County Short Sales and Port St Lucie Florida Short Sales and will help you get your home Sold if you need to Sell your home and help you buy your home in Palm Beach County Florida: Call us today.

 

   

 

 

        

 

Copyright © 2010 By Katerina Gasset, All Rights Reserved.*Short Sales- HAFA Guidelines and The TEN Day Dream Short Sale* 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HAFA- Defining The Details- Part II

Since I wrote the post, Let's Get To The Truth About HAFA- The New Short Sale Guidelines- there have been more questions raised. Like I said in that post we will take these HAFA guidelines apart so that you will be able to understand how this is going to help or not in your short sales.

The HAFA program is an acronym for Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives- Short Sale and Deed-In-Lieu of Foreclosure. It is known in the industry as the Supplemental Directive 09-09.

Let's continue with the analysis of HAFA:

The most important thing to understand about this directive- the HAFA program is that is provides, guidance to servicers for first mortgages that are NOT guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.

 The word that you need to pay attention to in this sentence is that these are guidelines. This is not the law. These are not really even policies or rules. Guidance is a suggestion not a must do.  

Servicers are the companies that you pay your mortgage to. Most people pay their mortgages to servicing companies and not the company that owns the note on your mortgage. This is confusing sometimes since the names of your servicers are names of banks. So you could be making your mortgage payments to Chase but Chase is just the servicer and your note may actually be owned by Wells Fargo. So you will not negotiate directly with Wells Fargo- Chase will do that part. It could be the other way around also. This is because your note is sold to other companies and sometimes your note could be sold to many different companies throughout the term of your note. I wrote an article that goes into detail about the servicers in this featured post about loan modifcations and short sales getting turned down by the servicers.

The HAFA program is a volunteer program basically although those servicers that have participated in the HAMP program must offer the HAFA program to homeowners under certain circumstances. The servicers have to opt into this program and they have to do this by December 31, 2009.

• All servicers that opt into the HAFA program must sign a SPA agreement with Fannie Mae in behalf of the United States. This SPA agreement is the same type of agreement as a PSA agreement.  

• The servicers get to decide the extent to which they want to work with short sales and these guidelines don't have to take effect until April 5, 2010 although the servicers who are in HAMP can move your file into HAFA before that date.

• Your loan must be HAMP eligible and meet other requirements in the guidelines in order to be eligible for the incentives to you and to your servicer.

That is an explanation of just the first page of the HAFA guidelines.


There are servicers who are already starting to use the HAFA program. The problem is that the servicers are already making mistakes in using this program.

Case In Point-

We have a short sale listing that is with Chase. We did not get to use our regular negotiator at Chase on this file. The negotiator we did have sat on his tush with this file and did not work on it. Then after 30 days of waiting without a BPO order, the negotiator it was assigned to sent it back to us along with a whole set of HAMP paperwork!

HAMP is the loan modification program that is a joke. Anyways- our seller does not qualify for the HAMP program on this property because it is an investment property. The homeowner does  not live in the house and thus is not eligable for HAMP or HAFA.  All the negotiator had to do was look at the file we sent in to see that this is an investment property and saved us all time. Now we are going to have to teach this negotiator how to use the HAFA program since they don't know how.

If the property you are doing a short sale on is not your principle residence you are not quailified for HAFA but you may still be able to get a short sale approved through normal short sale channels.

Don't get over excited about the 10 days that you read about everywhere. That ten days is NOT from the beginning of the process to the end. We will go into those details in the next post in this series on HAFA.

There are some positive things for the homeowner and those are:

• you will get up to $1500 to help you with moving expenses from the servicer upon a successful closing,

• the first note holder has to remove any deficiency and can not puruse a deficiency. This does not pertain to second mortgages or HELOCs.

We will continue through all 43 pages of these guidelines section by section- the sections that are important to homeowners and short sale agents. 

 

For more information about Florida Short Sales- click here.      

 

 

To  view Florida Short Sales- Click here. We know Palm Beach County Short Sales and Port St Lucie Florida Short Sales and will help you get your home Sold if you need to Sell your home and help you buy your home in Palm Beach County Florida: Call us today.

 

 

   

 

 

          

       

 

 

Short Sales and HAFA- Defining The Details for Real Estate Agents and Homeowners-was first published on South- Florida-Luxury-Living.com.

Copyright © 2009 By Katerina Gasset, All Rights Reserved.*Short Sales and HAFA- Defining The Details For Real Estate Agents and Homeowners.* 

 

 

 

 

 

Let's Get To The Truth About HAFA- The New Short Sale Guidelines

Active Rain and the internet has seen a surge in posts and articles written by agents and the media regarding the new HAFA program; the streamlining short sales program rolled out by the U.S. Treasury Department.

Many of these posts were featured. Many of them rang strong with hope for a faster closing time.  I will be writing a set of articles along with this one that will go over all of the points in the 43 pages of guidelines and forms. There is just too much to put in one post.

Whenever I see a group of people complaining and wanting something to be changed I want to take a step back to see the big picture.
One sentence comes to mind often, " Be careful what you ask for."

NAR, Realtors® and homeowners around the country shouted, petitioned, discussed, wrote and spoke to their representatives about how long short sales take and how the banks don't seem willing to do them and that they don't know what they are doing.

My first question is:

Who says that a professional small business in Real Estate was going to be a walk in the park? And what makes a business where there is no ceiling, low entry level  and can create success beyond one's wildest dreams also expected to be easy. Real estate is one of the highest stress careers but you can have a big pay day.

My second question is:

How many agents that wrote these posts of the blissful future of short sales actually read all 43 pages of the guidelines and forms?  

I was tempted to write about HAFA but decided that I better understand HAFA and form an opinion based on facts- the facts that are written in these guidelines. So I spent 8 hours yesterday studying these guidelines and speaking with attorneys about them to get their opinions.

On the NAR website under the HAFA section it states:

"HAFA is a complex program, with 43 pages of guidelines and forms, designed to simplify and streamline use of short sales and deeds-in-lieu of forecloxure."

Do you see the oxymoron? How do you place the words, COMPLEX and SIMPLIFY in the same sentence? 

The first rumor that I want to dispell is that all the short sales are now going to go smoothly. That is NOT the case.

These guidelines are complicated to say the least, there are a lot of ifs, ands and buts going on here.

The second rumor that I want to dispell is that all short sale lenders will have to answer your request for a short sale within 10 days.

This is NOT the case ALL the time and in ALL situations.

These guidelines are NOT for Fannie and Freddie owned loans. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be coming out with their own set of guidelines in the coming weeks.
The guidelines only pertain to servicers who are in the HAMP program now or those who enroll in the HAMP program.
Servicers must offer the HAMP program first before they offer the HAFA program.

The HAFA program is only for:

• Principal Residences
• First mortgages
• The mortgage is delinquent or will be delinquent in the foreseeable future.
• The unpaid balance is less than $729,750.
• The monthly mortgage payment is more than 31 percent of the borrower's gross income.

The third rumor that I want to dispell is that this is going to happen right now. NOT TRUE.

This program begins on April 5, 2010 and servicers have until December 31st of this year to opt in to the program.
However, servicers may opt to begin the program at any time before April 5, 2010 as long as they can implement a record keeping system.

The fourth rumor that I want to dispell is that all the lenders are now under these guidelines.

The HAFA program is not LAW. The US Treasury rolled out these guidelines to go along with the HAMP program.

This part really gets me!  

"The Treasury has selected Freddie Mac to serve as its' compliance agent for HAFA."

You mean the same Freddie Mac that was involved with the huge accounting and fraud scandals?

According to the Chicago Tribune Freddie Mac executives "devised a plan to use accounting tricks to mislead shareholders about outsize profits the government-chartered firm was then reaping from risky investments. The goal was to push earnings onto the books in future years, ensuring that Freddie Mac would appear profitable on paper for years to come and helping maximize annual bonuses for company brass."


We believe in adding value to our sellers. We are good at negotiating short sales. Short sales are much more about good negotiating skills than anything else and programs like these tend to tie our hands in applying our negotiation skills.

We will take longer short sale times with approvals any day over shorter short sale response times that come back with a Rejection mark on them in order to fulfil their accoutability time frames.

We close 98% of ALL of our short sale listings and other agents do also.  If we can do it, then you can too. If you are not closing above 80% of your short sale listings than you need to learn negotiating skills.  Negotiating skills is what brings value to your clients and your business.  Stay tuned for more details on the HAFA guidelines and forms- consider subscribing to our blog to be alerted of new articles.

 

 

 

Contact Nestor and Katerina Gasset today at 561-753-0135-Don't Lose Your Home To Foreclosure! 

Find out more about Florida Short Sales by clicking here.No registration required.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

          

       

 

Let's Get To The Truth About HAFA- The New Short Sale Guidelines- Rumors Vs Facts- Copyrighted © by Katerina Gasset *2009* All Rights Reserved.

 

 

 

 

Would you build here?  Wordless Wednesday. 

There is an old story about building on solid ground and not on the sand.  Ground like this will not support very much and a solid house requires a firm footing and foundation.  A firm foundation includes solid representation from your agent and your lender.  If you wouldn't build on such a site, why consider less than solid assistance and guidance when buying or selling?

Did you like this post?  Do you know someone else who might?  Do you know anyone who might benefit from our services?  Please pass this along to family or friends or contact us, we love to help.

Dan Tabit       206-310-8629    425-868-SOLD(7653)  DanTabit@Northstone.net

One stop Real Estate & Mortgage Services Serving Sammamish, Issaquah, Redmond, Bellevue, Mercer Island and the greater Seattle area.  

While the pundits and politicians discuss the housing crisis and the various ways to effect a recovery, the question to consider is: Has housing reached a turning point or a point of no return? It appears that housing is unlikely to return to its most recent glory days. But that’s not necessarily a negative interpretation; it just means that the housing market of the future will look dramatically different from that of the past decade.

 

We now know that the housing boom of 2004 – 2006 was temporary and artificial. It wasn’t an indication of forever escalating prices; though many seemed to believe so. The boom market was a bubble of inflated prices and irrational expectations of outlandish profits. Just as the stock market bubble that preceded the Great Depression created investors of doormen, maids, construction laborers, bartenders, and others seeking to capitalize on skyrocketing stock prices; the housing bubble created a wild frenzy of speculation and inflated home prices that was impossible to sustain.

 

Homeowners who purchased anticipating great profit, as well as investors, flippers, real estate agents, mortgage brokers, and those who bought early enough to borrow against their profits, have seen their dreams of easy cash and growing equities vanish. More than two million of those homes have fallen to foreclosure, and millions more are doomed to follow.

 

Hindsight is great, and shows the error of such paths. We should have known better, but we didn’t want to miss what appeared the opportunity of a lifetime. Homes, however, are not a commodity to be traded like soybeans, pork bellies, or precious metals. Homes are just that, a place to live, raise a family, create memories, and find solace at the end of day.

 

So, has housing reached a turning point or a point of no return? Perhaps it’s done both. Perhaps we’ve learned a valuable lesson—some of our most important ones come at a great price—and though the cost for many has been unbearable, the lessons remain. The bursting of the housing bubble may ultimately restore order to both housing and the financial markets; and the artificial market is doubtful to return until some future time when its memory has been erased.

                                                                                                                                                       

With that in mind, should anyone buy a home today? Of course, those who need one. However, some of those motivated solely by profit may find disappointment. Will home prices increase? Without question. But there is a question of time, and how  much will be required before prices increase. History tells us that the prices of those homes bought with careful consideration of both location and value will increase at a rate above the rate of inflation. If we do better, that’s great. If we don’t, we mustn’t lament, for we bought a home; and that can be worth far more than money in the end.

 

The Housing Guru: The one source for all your housing questins

Several months ago Congress approved a $6500 tax credit for homebuyers aimed at so-called "move up" buyers. Though it's been law since November, there are still a lot of questions and mis-information floating around. Here are a few things you should know about taking advantage of the tax credit:

• To qualify, you must have owned and lived in your current home for a consecutive 5 out of the last 8 years. And your income must be below $125k if you're single, $225k if you're married filing jointly.
• You may "move up" (buy a more expensive home) or "downsize" (buy a less expensive home); but whatever you buy cannot cost more than $800k.
• The replacement house must become your main home. There is no requirement to sell your previous home. You can rent it out, use it as a second home, or list it for sale at any time. If you plan to keep it, make sure you move into the new home upon closing so there is no question that it was your principle residence at that time.
• The home can be a newly constructed or pre-existing single family home, condominium, manufactured or mobile home, or even a house boat - as long as it functions as your primary residence. The $6500 tax credit does not apply to a second/ vacation home or investment property.
• Taxpayers are required to submit copies of their settlement statement (HUD-1 forms), along with their request for the credit using IRS Form 5405. Individuals who are under 18 or who are counted as dependents on another taxpayers filings are prohibited from claiming the credit.
• Eligible purchases made in 2010 can be claimed on either your 2010 or 2009 taxes.
• The deadline for this tax credit requires you to be in a binding contract by April 30, 2010 and have the purchase close by June 30, 2010. Do not assume that Congress will provide another extension!

The S&B Real Estate Team assists people in buying and selling real estate throughout Southwest Washington. We are proud members of Keller Williams Realty – Premier Partners in downtown Vancouver. Our local expertise covers: Vancouver, Battle Ground, Camas, Washougal, Brush Prairie, Hockinson, Ridgefield, Woodland and La Center. If you or someone you know is considering living or investing in Clark County, please contact us. Jamie Carroll can be reached at 360-609-6775. Steve Borwieck can be reached at 360-241-7305. Or drop us a note on the “Contact Us” page at www.sbreteam.com. We are here to help!

Our goal is to reach 3000 registered attendees to VirtualReBarcamp.com!

The event is free being presented by 28 of the top minds in RE technology and social networking. Currently we have 1500+ registered attendee.  To reach our goal we need your help.  Fortunately, we have a ringer in our pocket: The generosity of ListingMoves.com.  ListingMoves.com is going to be running  a contest for everyone that helps us attain our goal.

Anyone that writes/re-blogs this post on ActiveRain about VirtualReBarCamp.com being held January 4th will be entered in a drawing to win one of the following prizes:

      1. 1 year free subscription to ListingMoves.com premium package ($720 value)

      2. HP Netbook Computer

      3. Platinum RainCamp Access Pass (If you don't know what that is go to RainCamp.com or ask one of the guys here on ActiveRain they'll fill you in :-) )

      4. One year free NetFlix subscription (3DVD's out at a time)

The rules:

Comment below with the link to your post or re-blog so we can enter you in the drawing.

You can also tweet about this for a 2nd entry in the drawing and it can say anything to promote VirtualBarCamp but it must include #VREBC & #ListingMoves as hashtags for tracking purposes such as the following:

28Top real estate tech speakers present@ #VREBC Jan4  Register now by going to http://bit.ly/8BBZYu & qualify 4 $25 StarBucks GiveAway #ListingMoves

(ListingMoves.com will also be giving away 25$ starbucks gift cards to the 2000th, 2001st, 2500th, 2501st, 3000th, 3001st registered attendees and donate the same amount to the Warmath Children College Fund Charity) 

Wow!  Fingers crossed... come on 3000!