So, what is happening on the government front now? Are we or aren't we getting the help we need? There are so many variables afloat and no one seems to know what the exact language of anything right now. The consensus is that one of the biggest items that we in the Real Estate industry have been looking for, the tax credit will not be what we want, but may be close. The current $7,500 first time home buyer tax credit is due to expire on July 1. Details regarding the tax credit that have been released so far, the tax credit has been scaled down to $8,000 from $15,000, or 10% of the value of the home for any first time homebuyers who purchase homes from the start of the year until the end of November.  It starts phasing out for couples with incomes above $150,000 and single filers with in... 02/13/2009

When looking for that new home, especially in today's Real Estate environment, a lot of people think they are going to make a super deal by buying a foreclosure, and maybe they will. Yesterday, I announced the new Fannie Mae HomePath program for Fannie Mae foreclosures, today, I want to discuss the FHA 203k Streamline that works on nearly all foreclosures. Let’s take a look at the foreclosed property for a minute. First of all, we have a property that has been someone’s home and was probably pretty well cared for, or possibly, it was a rental and has seen better days. Either way, the owner was not able to make the payments for whatever reason and when they stopped making payments, they probably also stopped with their upkeep of the property. So, most often, you have a home that has been... 02/10/2009

When the dust from the departing helicopter finally settled, America realized that the old "shrubs" of the last 8 years had been replaced with the seeds of new growth opportunities.  Secretary of the Treasury, Timothy Geithner will most certainly review the current state of affairs and enact some significant new enhancements. http://information-security-resources.com/2009/02/10/geithner-appointment-clears-landscape/ 02/09/2009

For the past week, I have been writing a series about how to purchase foreclosures. I will be posting the first three of them shortly, but right now I have breaking news about the Fannie Mae on the HomePath program for the sale of Fannie Mae owned foreclosures. Not all properties are eligible but those that are could end up being a great deal for first time home buyers and for investors too. My post was done on my website so if you want all of the information, you will need to read it there. This is a great program to help get rid of some of the excess inventory generated by the foreclosure epidemic. Please check out my post. 02/09/2009

"Review the April Fool's Day 2008 Balance Sheet of the American Economy (Unmanageable Loss. Manageable Catastrophe. New Mortgage News, April 1, 2008). It predicts systemic bank failures. That means that it predicts that many banks will fail. This work depended upon approximately three minutes of study and calculation. It has been right in every respect -- except that what was then a wild prediction of losses now seems petite, thin and malnourished. At the time the guess was $2 trillion of mortgage losses. Now the guess is $5 trillion. Five is more than two.  The five trillion is now a wild number, but I have walked this way before. Logic is my guide. The madness of crowds I will leave as your option. As you may rightly imagine, with a trillion here and a trillion there, pretty soon we a... 02/09/2009

I came across this quote from Abraham Lincoln today: "How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg, doesn't make it a leg." The same way that calling a program "Hope for Homeowners" does not mean that the program actually offers any hope to homeowners. According to everything I am reading and hearing, the "Stimulus Bill," has provisions to make the Hope for Homeowners program more usable than it currently is. At the same time, calling a bill "Stimulus" doesn't make it so either. I am sure many people already know my opinion of what our elected representatives have done in the past and my trust in them doing something right in the future. All-in-all, I think the program that was scrapped, the FHA Secure, was probably the best one we had but hopeful... 02/03/2009

"We cannot start our recovery until we have completed our bankruptcy. Go ahead now and do the denial, anger, bargaining, and depression. Open the window and scream. Then put the fate of the world ahead of the obvious reasons we shouldn't do this. Yes, we will reward a carnival of bad behavior and make people believe they can get away with it. Should we chose massive global depression instead?" "Then ask yourself:  Is it possible our property market can deteriorate by 40% and no systemic bankruptcy follows? Is the bubble's very definition homeowners taking on debt they cannot afford - to buy houses priced for a Ponzi flip? Where is that bad debt going to go?" Continued:  http://yourmortgageoryourlife.wordpress.com/2009/02/02/plan-orange-a-quick-end-to-the-mortgage-mess/ 02/02/2009

Have you thought about buying a foreclosure for you new home? Do you have clients that think they can make the deal of the century by purchasing a foreclosure? Have you been watching those 3 a.m. infomercials that tell you that you can be the next Donald Trump-type millionaire in just 34.6 days by buying foreclosures for only pennies on the dollar? Honestly, bank owned properties can be an excellent value but they are not necessarily going to be the extreme value that you might think they are going into the search. There are companies out there selling lists of foreclosures promising all kinds of wonderful things, but delivering the same thing, except dated, that you can get just by dealing with a knowledgable Realtor. Of course, if you want to give your money to some late nite or inter... 02/02/2009

I just posted a new article on my website about recent financial reports and the possibility that we may be approaching the bottom of the Real Estate Market. Now, I am no Guru, but I read the stuff that is coming out and there is a possibility that things are turning around and if they are, it is time for those sitting on the sidelines to get in the game. If they aren't???? Author: fchamberlin  //  Category: Bank Owned properties, Eugene Homes for Sale, Eugene Oregon, Florence Orgon, Interest Rates, Local Information, Mortgage Loans, Real Estate Loans, Springfield, lane county, refinance The latest news from the housing market continues to be mixed but with some definite upbeat news. Yesterday, the government announced that existing home sales were higher than expected and higher than t... 01/27/2009

When will we hit the bottom? What is a good interest rate? What is the best interest rate? These questions will plague buyers for the coming months as they try to decide if this is the right time to buy a home. Today, Barry Habib, the Mortgage Market Guy, had this to say: "Existing Home Sales surprisingly came in a bit better than expected, at 4.7M when estimates were only for 4.40M.  Perhaps the current low interest rate environment we are operating in - combined with firesale prices on many homes - is helping more homebuyers see the wisdom in finally getting off the fence.  The arrival of this positive news is driving Bonds a bit lower in early trading." Where will you be when prices and rates are on the upswing? 01/26/2009

Three major concerns in mortgage loan underwriting have again come to the forefront with underwriters. Those three items, Credit, Collateral and Capacity are the three legs of intelligent underwriting in todays Real Estate Mortgage industry. What are some of the things that effect these three legs and what changes are new (again) in the consideration of underwriters. You can read the entire post here in my post on Eugene Loan Guy. I would have thought that some of these points were just common sense, but as is evident with the foreclosure rate and amount of defaulting mortgage loans, obviously, common sense didn't have a lot to do with underwriting in many cases in the past few years. 01/22/2009

There has been a lot of discussion about how the adjustment period of ARMs are going to have a major detrimental effect on the housing market as people with adjustable rates that they got over the past 2-3 years will be seeing their payments skyrocketing as these ARMs adjust. Well, it is just possible that this is not going to happen. The major index for ARMs, the LIBOR has dropped dramatically lately and those adjustments may not be coming the way someone would think. Please read the whole story here. Now, I think that it is best for most people to get into a fixed rate, but not necessarily for everyone, especially if you have lost equity. My best suggestion, give me a call. Pull out the note and adjustable rate rider that went with it. Let me go over your options with you. Think befor... 01/22/2009

"Talk about a credit crisis: Heartland Payment Systems, a credit card payment processing firm, may have been the victim of the largest data breach to date.  The Princeton, N.J.-based firm said Tuesday that it discovered malicious software in its systems that compromised the security of the data traversing its network. It's unclear what data may have been tampered with or stolen..." http://information-security-resources.com/2009/01/21/isr-news-worlds-biggest-data-breach/   01/21/2009

"Why don't these families simply refinance? Because the amount owed that would need to be refinanced is greater than what the home is worth, resulting in the loan being denied due to the short appraisal. Solution; waive the appraisal requirement on refinance for owner occupied homes with adjustable rate mortgages. That won't cost anyone a dime..." http://yourmortgageoryourlife.wordpress.com/2009/01/21/foreclosure-oncology-separating-facts-from-fixins/ 01/21/2009

Theater of Homes has just completed producing this video piece as an introduction to Theater of Homes and it's services.  Theater of Homes is more than just a quality  high definition home or property video tour production company.  Theater of Homes is so much more.  We are your complete marketing package.  Not only do we create your beautiful video home tour but we distribute that tour to all the video distribution services that have any clout.  In addition we tag, title, and add your description to allow easy accessibility and find-ability on those distribution services and search engines.  We even distribute your tour in an iTunes compatible RSS feed so that anyone can subscribe and receive regular video tour updates in HD that can be viewed on the computer, wide screen televisions,... 01/20/2009

The second post that I made on my website about refinancing covers the changing in the real estate mortgage market that may make it impossible for you to refinance even if it does make sense for you to do it. Changes like the loss of equity through lower sales prices, or charges for cash out refinances, or charges for lower credit scores, are only part of what is new in mortgage financing. I hope this gives you some useful information about the changing real estate environment. Author: fchamberlin, Senior Mortgage Consultant, Eugene/Springfield OR, 541-342-7576 Yesterday I posted about "just because you can refinance your mortgage, should you." Today, I want to touch on another question and that is, "Can you." I got a call yesterday from a person that wanted to know what the rate was fo... 01/19/2009

Assume mortgages of half of the eight trillion disappear. So four trillion dollars of mortgages burn and go away and are never paid and are a complete loss and write off. This means the banks and other mortgage owners are bankrupt to the tune of $4 trillion dollars. So the owners of the mortgages need $4 trillion dollars of new capital to get back to square one.   Continued:  http://yourmortgageoryourlife.wordpress.com/2009/01/19/omnipotent-property-depression-historys-ominous-omniscience   / 01/19/2009

Last week, I posted two separate articles on my website about refinancing. The first one is about whether or not it makes sense to refinance and takes the reader through the reasoning behind the refinance. A lower rate does not always make refinancing the right option. Just because you are getting a lower rate, doesn't mean you are saving money. Every loan and every situation is different. Please review the following to get a feel of what I mean: by Fred Chamberlin, Senior Mortgage Consultant, Eugene/Springfield OR, 541-342-7576. "Mortgage interest rates have dropped dramatically and are current at or near a 27 year low. That means you can save money on your mortgage payment every month, right? Well, the definitive answer to that is, MAYBE! Just because you can get a lower interest rate... 01/19/2009

Helping people that are having trouble, not just with making their mortgage payment on time, but puting food on the table or buying gas for their car is something that we all should be concerned with. Oregon State University has established links on the Extension Service website to do just that.  There are a lot of groups available to help in times of need and I know there are people in need. I hope these links will help them. This was posted on my website today. While listening to my wake up music this morning on KKNU Radio, Tracy Berry, the good looking portion of Barrett, Fox and Berry, gave us information about a help website being offered by Oregon State University. This website is being operated by the extension service at the University and is designed to help people find the pl... 01/14/2009

01/14/2009