Written By: Kristin Duff

There’s no doubt in my mind that one of the most overused words in the world today is EXPERT. It seems that everywhere you turn there are tons of people in every field imaginable that are experts. But the truth is that it takes more than saying you are an expert to actually be one.

In the real estate world a lot of agents claim that they are experts in their field. This being said, you never really know if who you are working with actually is an expert. There are however a few telltale signs that they are not in fact experts. Here are a few things to look for in your realtor to tell if they are just making claims at being an expert.

1.      Do they know their own paperwork?

Your realtor should know the contracts and affiliated paperwork like the back of their own hand. They should be able to answer all of your questions and concerns without hesitation or research. They should familiarize themselves with your particular contract before meeting with you and make sure that everything is correct and no changes need to be made before you sit down to sign them. If there are typos or errors in any of the documentation then the realtor has not fulfilled their responsibilities.

2.      Do they know the area they specialize in?

This is their specialty area. They need to know about the schools in the area, where the closest Starbucks is, all major landmarks and most of the conveniences of the area. If they truly specialize in the area then this should not be a problem. If you give them any single specific about where you want to live, they should be able to provide you that.

3.      Do they know the market and what is currently happening in it?

Your realtor’s job is to know what is happening in the current market. If the current market is swaying towards a seller’s market, as it did a few years ago, then your realtor should act accordingly and make sure you, his or her client, get the best deal possible for YOU! If the market is swaying towards short sales, like it is now, then your realtor should be more than capable of writing up and negotiating a short sale competently. If your realtor is behind in the market trends, then how can they ever expect to help you find what you’re looking for?

4.      Do they know what the buyers in the current market want?

If you are listing your house with an agent it is their responsibility to know what sells. Your taste doesn’t necessarily have to reflect what’s selling but if your taste doesn’t then your realtor should not have a problem with telling you what is selling and helping you to make your home appealing to the largest amount of people possible. If you are looking to buy, then the realtor should have a generalized idea of your taste, and they should take the steps necessary to find out that information. Once they narrow down your taste ion homes, they should have little trouble finding you something comparable.

You can’t fake expertise. If your realtor doesn’t know something well enough to be able to handle almost any situation that comes up during the process they should not call themselves an expert in that particular field. If they choose to call themselves experts and you discover that this is not true, it should make you wonder: What else have they lied about?

Mortgage problems are walloping Americans’ credit scores — latimes.com

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Late payments, delinquencies, short sales and foreclosures are on the rise — and so are the number of borrowers seeing their credit scores plummet, according to scoring company VantageScore Solutions

By Kenneth R. Harney

September 13, 2009

Reporting from Washington - When you do a short sale of a house, or modify the mortgage, is there much of an effect on your credit score? What if you walk away from the mortgage altogether?

A scoring company created by the three national credit bureaus — Equifax, Experian and TransUnion — has some eye-opening numbers. VantageScore Solutions, whose risk-prediction scores are now being used by some of the largest mortgage companies and banks, has found that the way consumers handle their mortgage problems can have profound effects on their credit scores.

For example, loan modifications that roll late payments and penalties into the principal debt owed on the house can actually increase borrowers’ scores modestly. Refinancings of underwater, negative-equity mortgages — which the Obama administration’s Making Home Affordable program offers through government-controlled Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — may have little or no negative effect on scores, even though the homeowners might have been tottering on the edge of serious delinquency before refinancing.

The Vantage credit score, the primary competitor to the long-dominant FICO credit score, rates borrowers on a scale range of 501 (subprime, the highest risk) to 990 (super-prime, the lowest risk). Unlike Fair Isaac Corp.’s FICO scoring system, whose scores can vary by 50 to 100 points based on which bureau supplied the underlying credit data, Vantage scores are about the same for each consumer.

When homeowners negotiate a short sale with lenders, they sometimes assume that there will be relatively little effect on their scores. After all, the loan was successfully paid off, there was no foreclosure, and the lender voluntarily agreed to accept a lower balance than was owed.

But according to VantageScore researchers, short sales can trigger big drops in credit scores. Sarah Davies, senior vice president of analytics, said a homeowner with an excellent score of 862 might plummet 120 to 130 points after a short sale.

Although it’s true the lender may lose less money through a short sale compared with a foreclosure, “it’s still a derogatory event,” Davies said. The full debt was not repaid and the lender lost money.

What happens when borrowers walk away from their mortgage debts altogether — the so-called strategic defaults that have become commonplace in some large markets such as in California? They should expect 140- to 150-point hits to their scores, plus negative marks on their credit bureau files for as long as seven years.

People who file for bankruptcy protection covering all their debts (mortgage, credit cards, auto loans, etc.) will get hit with an average 355- to 365-point drop in their scores. Bankruptcies remain on borrowers’ credit bureau files for 10 years.

With all the mortgage delinquencies, short sales and foreclosures experienced by U.S. consumers in the last couple of years, has there been a deterioration of average scores across the board? Absolutely.

For example, roughly 36.6 million of the 213 million consumers tracked by the three national credit bureaus in the first quarter of 2008 had Vantage scores above 900 — the super-prime credit rung. That select group represented 17.2% of the country’s consumers.But by the end of the second quarter of this year, just 15.4% — 33.3 million out of 216.9 million individuals’ files — were left among the elite. By credit industry standards, that’s huge.

More Americans’ scores are slipping into the worst credit category as well. In the third quarter of 2006, 34.4 million consumers were in the lowest segment — 16.6% of 206.9 million individuals. But by the second quarter of this year, 18.3% of all files were in that category — 39.8 million consumers out of 216.9 million.

Most of these changes — fewer people with excellent credit, more people in the lowest brackets — have been caused by late payments on home mortgages, serious delinquencies, short sales and foreclosures, according to VantageScore researchers.

But the bottom-line good news about scores is that homeowners facing financial stress can experience minimal dings to their credit if they contact their loan servicer or lender early in the game — when they first discover that they may have trouble making their monthly payments — and take the first steps toward a loan modification or refinancing.

“Start that conversation early,” said Barrett Burns, a former lender and now chief executive of VantageScore. If you wait and fall several payments behind before seeking a modification, “you can lose 240 points on your score” and damage your ability to obtain credit for years.

kenharney@earthlink.net

Distributed by the Washington Post Writers Group.

Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times

Written By: Kristin Duff

As the market changes, once again, we see home prices going back up, slowely over time. The real estate market is an ever changing roller coaster of events. The homes on the market now are priced aggressively and they don’t tend to stay available long. Most of the bank owned properties available are short sales and foreclosures and they are priced to sell, not priced to stay on the market. Consequently, the homeowners not in distress who are selling their homes are pricing their homes aggressively just to keep with the tide. Prices today lead this market to the buyer’s advantage. A home that would have cost close to a million dollars three to five years ago are selling for close to half their cost these years later. So the question for all you investers out there is such: when is the market done falling? When is it right to invest? When will i get the best deal? Well, the answers to these questions lie in the statistics. Asking prices are going back up and the time to buy investment properties is now, before it’s too late to nab the good deals. Don’t be left saying “I Shoulda, I Coulda, If only I Woulda.” Don’t be left in the dust of the next turn on this roller coaster of a real estate market. Call your realtor before it’s too late!

 Written By: Kristin Duff

If you have recently pondered selling your home, you must know at this point that there have been many foreclosures and short sales in your area. These homes, priced aggressively, have a direct effect on your homes market value. When selling a home, the asking price is based on comparable homes in the area, to include recent short sales and foreclosures. Your house is not necessarily worth more just because you can continue to make your payments. As rediculous as this sounds, it’s a hard, sad truth that needs to be realized. The under cut prices of today’s market make it hard for anyone able to make their mortgage payments to sell their homes due to the deflation of the market. Homeowners with a $300,000 loan on their property are looking at selling for far less than their loan ammounts and are finding themselves upside down in this market. Unfortunatly, these bank owned homes have become a staple in the market and they are very competatively priced.They are your competition and you have to price your house for sale in accordance with the current market value for your community. Pricing is a very important part of trying to sell yuor home and if you do wish to sell in this economy, you will find it difficult to sell your home if the price you are asking is too steep in comparison to the other homes for sale in your community.

Written By: Kristin Duff

Many homeowners are discovering the hard way that though the idea of a loan modification seems like a miracle, it’s simply a band-aid. What I mean when I say band-aid is that it’ll cover the abraision temporarily, making the burn go down and helping to ease the pain, until you have to rip the sucker off, pulling the wound open once again. Most of the time, a loan modifiaction request can be a lenghty process during which the homeowner has to undergo the scruteny of the bank holding the loan. The bank requires proof that you, as the homeowner, are under duress and are unable to make your payments. The banks take their time reviewing their documents, causing some hownowners to fall behind even further, or worse, the bank requests a temporary payment, usually three months worth while the bank evaluates the homeowners ability to make payments then says they dont have enough information and they need another temporary payment of similar value. Then, the bank offers you a deal, with a length of time at a lower fixed interest rate. At this point, you’re thinking “i can make that kind of payment”, but the tricky part is lookiing beyond the now factor. As a homeowner seeking a loan modification you need to ask yourself “does this new loan modification actually fix my situation or when the length of time allowed for this fixed interest rate is up, am I going to end up making my situation worse?” In some instances the loan modification documents can even narrow your field of options, eliminating your chances to put your home on the maket via short sale, during which your home is sold at current market value and the rest of your mortgage debt can be forgiven. If you are considering applying for or accepting your banks offer for a loan modification, please take the time to seek advice from a Certified Distressed Property Expert or a trusted lender outside of your bank’s authority to ensure that you aren’t just “covering up” your wounds to deal with them at a later point in time. Falling behind on your payments during this economic crisis is nothing to be ashamed of as long as you seek the proper help to alleviate the situation.