Brodie Stephens- Broker Associate Selling Homes in Folsom | Placerville | Pollock Pines | El Dorado Hills | Elk Grove | Roseville | Rocklin

Some borrowers think that because their mortgage application is turned down the first time, they won’t ever be approved.  In reality, some borrowers succeed on the second or third attempt, usually with a different mortgage professional, and often several months later, after they have saved more money for a larger down payment or improved their credit score.

Making sense of the story

• Before reapplying for a mortgage, borrowers are advised to look at the reasons they were initially rejected.
• The Equal Credit Opportunities Act requires lenders to give loan applicants specific reasons in writing within 30 days of their decision.  If it’s based on a problem in the borrower’s credit report, the lender must tell the borrower the name and address of the credit agency that provided the information.
• Talking to the loan officer who denied the application to see how close the borrower was to being approved also can be helpful.  Sometimes the gap is small and could be bridged with a larger down payment or another home appraisal, for example.
• It also may be worthwhile to shop around for other lenders.  Borrowers can work with a mortgage broker or an online network like LendingTree or Zillow’s Mortgage Marketplace.
• A credit union also might be a better bet for some applicants.  Credit union loan committees may permit better deals for longtime members; they might also modify loan terms for borrowers they already know.
• However, first-time buyers may need to scale back their aspirations.  One reason people get turned down for a mortgage is because they try to buy more property than they can afford based on current incomes.
• Applicants also should look at ways to strengthen their financial picture.  If a borrower’s credit is poor, paying down credit-card balances can help to increase a FICO score. 

Read the full story
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/16/realestate/mortgages-what-to-do-after-an-application-is-rejected.html?_r=1&ref=realestate

Calif. median home price: July 2011: $294,230 (Source: C.A.R.)
Calif. highest median home price by region/county July  2011: Marin: $761,030 (Source: C.A.R.)
Calif. lowest median home price by region/county July 2011: Madera $92,500 (Source: C.A.R.)

Calif. Pending Home Sales Index: June 2011: 119, an increase of 1.9 percent compared with prior month. (Source: C.A.R.)
 
Calif. Traditional Housing Affordability Index: Second quarter 2011: 51 percent (Source: C.A.R.)

Mortgage rates: Week ending 8/11/2011 30-yr. fixed: 4.32 fees/points: 0.7% 15-yr. fixed: 3.50 fees/points: 0.7% 1-yr. adjustable: 2.89% Fees/points: 0.5% (Source: Freddie Mac)

Home values nationwide declined 0.4 percent from the first to the second quarter of 2011, the smallest quarterly decline in more than four years, according to Zillow’s second quarter Real Estate Market Reports. The Zillow Home Value Index fell 6.2 percent year-over-year to $171,600. Home values have decreased 28.8 percent since they peaked in June 2006.

Regionally, home values fell on a year-over-year basis in 142 of the 154 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) covered by Zillow and were flat in eight areas. In the short term, however, nearly two-thirds of MSAs (94 of 154) experienced home value appreciation, with the Zillow Home Value Index rising from the first to the second quarter.

Negative equity fell slightly to 26.8 percent of single-family homeowners with mortgages in the second quarter, down from 28.4 percent in the first. Homeowners are in negative equity when they owe more on their mortgage than their home is worth.

Meanwhile, the rate of foreclosure re-sales declined from its peak in March 2011, when 21.4 percent of all sales were foreclosure re-sales. In June, 19.7 percent of sales were foreclosure re-sales.

More info

 by James Dwiggins under Technology.

I meet real estate professionals every week and hear the same technology complaints and issues over and over. So after some contemplation and conversation, it was decided that there needed to be a re-wiring of our thought process around technology and how to interact with it… so the wiREd Conference was born! If you’re a real estate professional in Northern California and you have said any (or all!) of the following statements, you should consider getting re-wiREd at the wiREd Conference:

1.You’ve been told to join Facebook, and now all its become is just another thing to maintain

2.You joined twitter, but there are only so many times you can share with people when your buying a cup of coffee

3.You know you need to blog, but you don’t know what to write about or have the time

4.You feel Zillow.com has made your job harder and you need to know how to use it to your benefit

5.You want to ask lots of how-to questions from industry leaders but never get the chance to

6.Younger homebuyers are now 50% of the market and you don’t know how to connect with them

7.Technology has become more of a burden than an asset to your business

We managed to snag David Gibbons of Zillow, who will talk about what’s happening at Zillow and in the online real estate industry. He’ll help you deal with customer objections, the use of Zestimates and how real estate pros can co-exist and succeed with the new online tools. He’ll also do a Q&A session, so if you come you get to ask him all those hard-hitting questions you’ve got! We’ve also got Shannon King of Schoolhouse Realty who will present her Real Estate Road Warrior Course – designed to help agents who feel their car is their office stay ahead of the curve and in touch with their clients by embracing the high-tech world we live in. Shannon leaves agents and brokers with 20+ tools they can implement immediately for increase profit and efficiency.

Also presenting are Derek Overbey of Roost and Erin Robbins of Realty World NCA (that’s me!) Derek and Erin will be doing a tag-team presentation on Facebook and Twitter, discussing how real estate professionals can easily and effectively implement these tools into their business.

The wiREd Conference is going on in two Norther California locations – Newark for all the Bay Area people, and Stockton for the Sacramento and Central Valley folks. Since I’m participating and excited about seeing everyone that I haven’t run into since Inman, ReBarCamp, CAR or NAR, be sure to take a look at the webpage and get registered today.