Selling your home as a short sale can be a good option when you find yourself confronted by financial pressure, and here in Clay County we have a great deal of homes on the market as short sales. One thing you can count on is it’s likely to be a long and sometimes frustrating journey as you are confronted by all the added requirements from the bank.  Along with the extra requirements with short sales, there is the potential that as soon as you think you’ve reached your goal; you learn your buyer walked.

 There are many common reasons this can happen. If the bank takes too long to approve your offer, the buyer can walk. If the appraisal is too low, or the home inspection shows too many issues, the buyer could walk. Sometimes when there are multiple offers, buyers will walk. Regardless of the reasons, this could leave you feeling as though you have to start all over. If you haven’t been making payments, you may be faced with foreclosure proceedings.  Avoiding this with swift action is a positive step.

 There are steps you can take to recover a foothold in this process. If you have multiple offers, you can move to a backup offer. Be sure to act quickly and decisively to lock it in. If you don’t have any back up offers, and you have an approved price from your bank, be sure to have your agent advertise this fact. The benefit of a potentially shortened lead time to closing with an approved price can go a long way to attracting a buyer in this new market, and to easing your concerns about getting your home sold.

 If you have questions about selling your Clay County home as a short sale or straight sale give us a call. We answer your questions with no obligations on your part.

Recent industry news indicates that home buying in our backyard of Clay County should be a good thing to do right now. Interest rates are at their lowest in a long time – longer than most of our homebuyers can recall. This is good news if you’re shopping for your next mortgage.  While it has become harder to qualify for a mortgage, it is not impossible. One step to take to improve your chances is to maintain multiple relationships with a borrower – tapping into the Loyalty Factor. You recognize the importance lenders see in building loyalty by the vast number of advertising messages you see every day from lenders asking for your business, especially when you’re home shopping for your new Clay County home.  

Studies show the loyalty factor is a dramatic contributing factor in mitigating the concerns held by lenders, and therefore the probability of obtaining credit for buyers. As the economy continues to recover and lenders return to more active customer acquisition activities, the opportunities to establish yourself with your preferred lender in this somewhat traditional sense will be advantageous. While the Loyalty Factor does not show up in credit scores, studies show that when a customer has multiple relationships with the same lender, it’s a mutual win.

 Customers with multiple relationships have a history of lower than average delinquency rates making it attractive to lenders; and by establishing yourself with a lender and maintaining a good record you improve your odds for them extending credit to you. Multiple relationships provide an avenue for extending credit to consumers who traditionally have constrained credit access but can yield quite profitable relationships for lenders.  Loyalty is built in tough times more so than in good times because people remember and return to those who helped them overcome a short-term liquidity crisis, or extended credit when others wouldn’t.

 So, while you’re shopping for your next home across Clay County, take a look at your lenders here in Orange Park, Middleburg, Fleming Island and Green Cove Springs and see who you like best. Then, tap into the Loyalty Factor.

The Perkins Realty Team hopes your Independence Day weekend was a Blast! And in case you missed it during all those fireworks and hot dogs, Congress voted to extend the dates to benefit by the homebuyer tax credits.

 What does this mean? The deadline to complete the purchase of your new Clay County home and qualify for up to $8,000 has been pushed back to September 30, 2010. That’s good news for everyone who thought they weren’t going to make that June 30th deadline. This extension only applies to those who already have signed contracts, so while we still want to see you run out and start home shopping, don’t do it just for this benefit. The National Association of Realtors estimates that about 180,000 home buyers will benefit from this tax credit extension. If you’re still wondering if you qualify, talk to your agent, or give us a call!

 In addition to the extension, interest rates continue to be the lowest they’ve been for almost a generation. What does this mean for us in Fleming Island and our neighboring towns? If you are considering purchasing or refinancing a home the rates for your potential mortgage are very attractive. The criteria to qualify for a loan has been tightened in today’s climate making your first step in the home shopping process a visit to your lender to prequalify. Once you have this step taken care of it’s time to begin shopping for your next home. There are so many options here in Clay County for your real estate shopping pleasure, so be sure you are in the know regarding all the factors affecting your real estate activity whether you’re buying or selling a home. Stay tuned and thanks for visiting!

Demand for mortgages returned last week after two consecutive down weeks, pushing the index up 10.9 percent to 493.1 from 444.8 the previous week on a seasonally adjusted basis that reflected the July 4 holiday.

On an unadjusted basis, the index decreased 0.5 percent compared with the previous week, but rose 7.2 percent compared with the same week a year ago.

The refinance index increased 15.2 percent, while the purchase index rose 6.7 percent.

Mortgage rates were mostly unchanged from the previous week. 30-year fixed-rate mortgages were flat compared to the previous week at 5.34 percent;15-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 4.83 percent from 4.81 percent; and 1-year ARMs increased to 6.58 percent from 6.52 percent.

Source: Mortgage Bankers Association (07/08/2009)

Bank of America has debuted www.BankOfAmerica.com/HomeLoans, a new Web site for borrowers that includes a calculator that determines not just what size loan people can qualify for, but how much they can spend without being stretched too thin.

“We wanted to change the conversation to ‘How much house can I comfortably afford?’ rather than ‘What’s the maximum I can buy?’ ” said Aditya Bhasin, the product, pricing and strategy executive for Bank of America Home Loans.

The site was designed to be easy to read, spelling out a variety of contingencies, including the maximum payment that an adjustable rate mortgage could potentially cost.

The new site also offers what BofA calls Flat Fee Mortgage Plus, which has no application fee and a single closing fee that includes processing costs and fees for third-party services like appraisals.

It doesn’t include other standard costs like property taxes, homeowners’ insurance and prepaid interest.

Craig Focardi, a senior research director at the Tower Group, a financial consulting firm, said the idea for the plan is nothing new – it’s been tried by others. But the prominence of the programs could persuade competitors to adopt the features.

Source: The New York Times, Bob Tedeschi (05/08/2009)

Mortgage applications zoomed upward last week, with the index rising 21.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis to 876.9 from 723.4 the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

On an unadjusted basis, the index increased 20.7 percent compared to the previous week and was up 31.2 percent from the same week a year ago.

Much of the increase was in refinances, reflecting a significant decline in rates. The refinance index increased 29.6 percent, while the purchase index was up only 1.5 percent. The refinance share of mortgage activity reached 72.9 percent.

Average interest rates were down:

• 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 4.89 percent from 4.96 percent;
• 15-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 4.52 percent from 4.54 percent;
• 1-year ARMs decreased to 6.20 percent from 6.21 percent.

Source: Mortgage Bankers Association (03/18/2009)