Hidden benefits of Presidential stimulus package

Believe it or not, now is a great time to buy a home.  The cost of money is about to go down even further by a change in a lending law that no one is talking about because all the news is focused on the President's tax rebate program.

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Why Wont your home Sell?

The home is spacious, has four bedrooms, a large den and a two car garage.  It's located within minutes of high quality schools retail stores and a variety of recreational activities.  Your local Real Estate Agent says the market is hoping and you see many homes move quickly off the market.

So why has your home languished on the market with no offers?

 

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10 Mistakes You Cannot Afford

Here are Ten Frequent financial mistakes consumers routinely make, and that you should avoid.

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State of the Market

 You are very lucky.  Besides living in such a wonderful playground, you also live in the top Real Estate market in the Nation! 

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How does the "Subprime Mess" affect me?

There are many different ways the current turmoil in the lending industry will affect everyone of us.  How we are affected will depend on credit, savings, and yes who we know. 

Credit:  Part 1.  Very plainly, borrowing money for home purchases is now very difficult for those with less than perfect credit and will be for some time.  Fortunately, credit is repairable.  To make a very long story short, Wall Street investors have lost confidence in the security and soundness of the bundled loan packages they used to buy with such zeal from local lenders.  When Wall Street investors will not buy loans if the borrowers measure a tad less than perfect, from the localized mortgage brokers the mortgage brokers cannot make the loans.  Yes, Wall Street will still buy loans attached to less than perfect borrowers, but they will pay much less.  Therefore, the mortgage broker has to charge you and I more.  For a solution, skip to the Who you know section.

Credit:  Part 2.  If you have great credit, you are in luck.  BOrrowing for home purchases is becoming cheaper!  Fortunately, lenders still have tons of cash to lend.  If they don't lend it out it is sitting there useless putting lenders in a bit of a bind.  If they can't make loans to what were 40% of their customers (sub prime and sub a borrowers) how do they make money?  Simple attract more of the preferred group of customers!  How do they do that?  Lower the interest rates being offered to well qualified borrowers.  If you are a well qualified borrower and were thinking about making an investment in Vail Real Estate, now is a fantastic time.

 

Savings:  One of the key factors making a loan sub prime that many people do not talk about is very simply the size of the loan.  A borrower can have perfect credit, assets several times the size of the loan in question and seven figure income but if the loan amount is $418,000 it's a subprime loan.  This means it's buyers will now be using more of their savings and or the gain from the sale of old homes to finance the new ones.  It also means that many buyers who were considering purchases in the $500,000 to $700,000 range may now be priced out of the market financially.  This will have a direct effect on the sales of properties in those price ranges as the size of the pool of potential buyers has now shrink by almost 40%.

Who you know:  Fortunately, not all lending institutions are so strictly bound by these lending policies.  Visit your local Portfolio Lender.  These are organizations that often hold their loans "in house".  They do not sell their loans on Wall Street and use their own money or borrow it themselves to lend it to you.  These organizations are looking strictly at you and you alone as an opportunity to gain your business and balance that against your and only your risk factors.  You and your credit are not being measured on a nationwide policy scale.   You are not rejected because of some national trend but judged on you and you alone. Dave Portman of First Bank of Vail 970-479-3309 and Jim Brenner of Blue Sky Mortgage, 970-476-0602 have proven excellent in the past and are great sources of information about portfolio lending.

Seller's Corner

Property seller's all over the country are feeling a little above and even unaffected by the current upheval in the mortgage business.  BEWARE!  If you own or are selling a home, the current instability in the mortgage markets DOES affect you.  Always remember there are more than three rules (location, location, location) to real estate, and the other rules do matter.

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Money and Real Estate

The following letter was sent to us last week by a top mortgage lender.  The tone of this letter shows how extreme the upheval was last week in the mortgage money market.  Later this week, we'll explain how this will be affecting the real estate markets.
 
Ben Kleimer

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Picking the best time to sell your Home.

Sometimes when you make the decision to sell your home, it is because of a job transfer or other situation that you could not have anticipated. However, many sellers actually get to choose when to sell their home. For those sellers, they want to know if there is a "best time" to put their home on the market? Are there times of the year that make your home more appealing to buyers than other times of the year? This free booklet will help you understand how the market works so that you have every advantage when you do decide to offer your home to prospective buyers.

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How to successfully sell your home.

Do you want to know the importance of pricing your home right the first time? How can the home's price, terms, conditions, and marketing make the difference in selling YOUR home? What should a professional do to help market and sell your home? Read this report to learn the answers!

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Start a New Life at Vail Colorado - own a house or find real estate rentals

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