By:  Robert A. Hulme - Realtor - Loan Officer When it comes time to purchase a new home, the question always comes up, should I sell my old home before I buy the new one?  Depending on your credit situation and your ability to qualify for two loans, this question could be easily resolved.  We will assume you have excellent credit and can do whatever you please.  It is always better to have your present home sold before you make an offer on the new home.  If you have an offer with a contingency of selling the old home, the seller will be less likely to accept the offer or allow better terms.  You will always be in a better bargaining position if you were able to move in without delay.  Credit terms on you new loan will also be better based on you living in the new home as your primary re... 01/05/2009

*** UPDATED - SEE BELOW*** Keller Williams Westfield Real Estate has Officially moved in to their new Orem Location. We moved in just before Christmas under snowy and windy conditions, proving that you can move anytime of year :) Web TCS also moved into our new office location in the Keller Williams office, our new address at the KW office will be: 841 North 900 West, Orem, UT 84057. (Just east of I-15 off of 800 North) Keller Williams Westfield Real Estate is planning on hosting an Open House/Grand Opening on January 16th from 2-6pm. That date and time may change, so I will update it as we get closer. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me (Jason) @ (888) 553-2539 Ext: 7 ***Grand Opening Update*** The Official Grand Opening Date has Been set, and it will be accompanie... 12/30/2008

By: Robert A. Hulme - Realtor - Loan Officer -Utah County, Including Provo, Orem, Pleasant Grove, American Fork, Lehi, Highland, Alpine and Cedar Hills, Eagle Mountain, Payson, Saratoga Springs, Spanish Fork, Springville, Mortgage Xpress, Agent Stated Income Loans have become fairly obsolete in recent months.  Due to the present situation in the Mortgage market, lenders have taken a closer look at getting as much information about the applicant as possible.  Stated Income loans allow the borrower to simply state their income on a mortgage application instead of having verification.  Stated Income loans were originally established to help the self-employed borrower obtain financing.  Many time the stated income loan has been referred to as, liars loan, mainly because many borrowers state... 12/23/2008

Keller Williams Westfield Real Estate is supposed to be "Officially" moving in to their new Orem Location, tomorrow Friday December 19th 2008! We will be their to help everyone move in. It looks like it will be another snowy day in Utah, so we may just have to put the furniture on ski's and slide it on into the building. Web TCS will be in the new office location, our new address at the KW office will be: 841 North 900 West, Orem, UT 84057. We are extremely excited about being in the new location which is just east of I-15 off of 800 North. The brand new building is beautiful and has a great view of Utah Lake. If your in the area stop on by next week and say HI. we are looking forward to helping many people with their real estate needs in Orem and the surrounding areas.   ______________... 12/18/2008

By: Robert A. Hulme - Realtor - Loan Officer -Utah County, Including Provo, Orem, Pleasant Grove, American Fork, Lehi, Highland, Alpine and Cedar Hills, Eagle Mountain, Payson, Saratoga Springs, Spanish Fork, Springville, Mortgage Xpress, Agent With the Federal Reserve cutting the interest rate to an all-time low and Mortgage rates should follow.  Mort gage rates are fast approaching all-time low status as well.  I believe we will continue to see this trend throughout the New Year.  With 30 year rates hovering around 5%, many first time home buyers and investors are considering coming out of the closest.  Should home buyer take action now, or should they wait for further lowering of Mortgage rates?  My belief is that rates will go lower but not much, so what advantage would the home buy... 12/17/2008

By: Robert A. Hulme - Realtor - Loan Officer -Utah County, Including Provo, Orem, Pleasant Grove, American Fork, Lehi, Highland, Alpine and Cedar Hills, Eagle Mountain, Payson, Saratoga Springs, Spanish Fork, Springville, Mortgage Xpress, Agent The Real Estate Appraisal is an important part of your home buying transaction.  The appraisal helps to establish what the property's market value actual is, in fact it would likely be the main tool in helping the seller establish the proper selling price. Lenders require an appraisal when the home is offered as security for a loan; they want to make sure that the property will sell for at least the amount of money it is lending.  Real estate agents often use a comparative market analysis (CMA), with an appraisal to help their home seller determi... 12/16/2008

By: Robert A. Hulme - Realtor - Loan Officer -Utah County, Including Provo, Orem, Pleasant Grove, American Fork, Lehi, Highland, Alpine and Cedar Hills, Eagle Mountain, Payson, Saratoga Springs, Spanish Fork, Springville, Mortgage Xpress, Agent Are you Elderly (Over 62 years of Age)?  Are you considering selling your home to get the money necessary to survive in your retirement?  The Reverse Mortgage (RM) may be a great alternative.  The RM was designed to enable older retired homeowners who are likely to be on fixed income to use the equity in their homes (Most likely totally paid for) as a source of supplemental income while still retaining ownership.  The RM program is available to homeowners who are 62 years of age, who own their home free and clear or nearly so and who wish to use ... 12/11/2008

We still are having a low percent of new listings being SOLD.  Currently (15.48) % on a year over year, YTD comparison and we need positive % of listings sold, with positive price action to confirm market bottom. Please see data below.                                                                                  PRICE ACTION   Other good signs in addition to positive price action is lower DOM (days of the market) and lower new listings.             SUMMARY  Currently we are not seeing the needed positive price action to confirm a market bottom. This is NOT a good time for conservative buyers to purchase.  High risk tolerant investors and speculators are doing some bottom fishing. For more details or just to chat about market conditions please feel free to contact me.   12/08/2008

Understanding Mortgages, Getting the best Rate. By: Robert A. Hulme - Realtor, Mortgage Loan Officer As a home buyer, it only makes sense to try and get the lowest rate possible when obtaining a Home Loan.  After all, the rate is the primary factor in determining your house payment.  But how do you get a low rate when applying for a home loan?  This is the primary question that most home buyers want to know.  I would like to explain some important ideas that you need to keep in mind. Credit Score One of the primary factors in helping to determine your interest rate is your credit score and financial history.  In other words the best interest rates are usually reserved for those with the highest credit score.  So if you credit score is not very high the chance of getting a lower interest... 11/14/2008

Home Buyer - Seven Factors of a Loan Transaction By: Robert A. Hulme - Realtor - Loan Officer -Utah County, Including Provo, Orem, Pleasant Grove, American Fork, Lehi, Highland, Alpine and Cedar Hills, Eagle Mountain, Payson, Saratoga Springs, Spanish Fork, Springville, Mortgage Xpress, Agent When you are ready to buy a new home, the first step in the Purchase Process is qualifying for a Home Loan.  Listed below you will find the seven factors of a Loan Transaction. Debt to Income Ratio - These are used to determine the borrower's capacity to repay the mortgage.  Higher ratios represent increased risk and should be offset by compensation factors. Loan to Value - this is the ratio of the amount borrowed to the appraised value or sales price of the real property expressed as a percentage.... 11/11/2008

For Sale by Owner vs. Realtor By: Robert A. Hulme - Realtor - Loan Officer -Utah County, Including Provo, Orem, Pleasant Grove, American Fork, Lehi, Highland, Alpine and Cedar Hills, Eagle Mountain, Payson, Saratoga Springs, Spanish Fork, Springville, Mortgage Xpress, Agent When it comes time to sell your home, one big decision needs to be made.  Can I sell my home by myself or should I use a Realtor?  Everybody wants to make as much money as they can when it comes time to sell their home, but it is necessary to maintain realistic expectations if there is to be a successful sale transaction.  The For Sale by Owner option is often perceived to be best way to make the highest profit when selling a home.  In theory, that makes a lot of sense, but there are so many variables that the result... 11/07/2008

Buying your First Home By: Robert A. Hulme - Realtor - Loan Officer -Utah County, Including Provo, Orem, Pleasant Grove, American Fork, Lehi, Highland, Alpine and Cedar Hills, Eagle Mountain, Payson, Saratoga Springs, Spanish Fork, Springville, Mortgage Xpress, Agent Well the time has come; you are finally out making a good living.  You are beginning to get tired of paying rent, the number one advise that friends and family are giving you is, Buy a House.  By this time you are about to be hitched and have probably saved enough money for a down payment.  After a fair amount of thinking about it, you jump over the first hurdle and decide to go for it.  Now once you are focused about what you want you then jot down a list of things you want in a house.  That being done the search begins.  ... 11/06/2008

Bank Owned Properties - Utah County Real Estate Banks are not in the business to hold onto an inventory of homes.  They want to get rid of these homes yesterday.  This makes for a great opportunity for you, the home buyer or investor, because most of these homes are well below market value.  Once the bank owns the property they will handle eviction if any, take care of some repairs, pay past HOA and/or other maintenance dues, and then will negotiate with the IRS, removal of tax liens, if any. How do banks sell REO Property? (Real Estate owned by the Bank) Most banks have an REO department that handle  the sale of these properties.  They certainly would like to get the best price of course.  When you make an offer, the banks will usually make a counter offer.  Don't  be surprised to get ... 11/04/2008

Utah County Real Estate - Buyers - Getting Pre Approved Buying your first home?  , maybe your second, well this can be a wonderful experience for you or this could be a disaster.  It all depends on how prepared you are when the process starts.  Your first step is getting Pre-Approved. Financing a home can be a difficult process for you, especially finding the right loan.  What you need to be concerned about is not getting the financing, but getting the right financing.  You will want to find the best terms at the lowest cost.  You will want to meet with a loan officer to review your financing options;  you will need to meet with a lender who can explain all of the different types of loans that you will be able to afford as well as the program that will help you meet your goals.  Once yo... 11/03/2008

Orem Real Estate, What is a Short Sale? With the present Real Estate market in turmoil and many home owners are having a hard time trying to sell their home, because they owe more than it is worth.  I keep getting the question from my buyers about what is a Short Sale and how does it work?  Well I will try and address that question here.  I hope I am accurate, I am sure I will hear about it if I am not. What is a Short Sale? A Short Sale occurs when a property sells for a price that is insufficient to pay back the loans secured by the property (or any other liens against the property, such as delinquent property taxes, Homeowners/Condominium Association fees, etc.), as well as standard sales closing costs.  In order to complete such a sale, the Seller must either: Come to the closing wi... 11/02/2008

Utah County Real Estate Outlook on Home Prices is Stable Many economists predicted that the housing market would take a dive and drop in prices.  But here in Utah we have stayed somewhat stable.  In fact, it was only in September did our median sales price see a drop of more than 5%.  So the old saying buy low, sell high is certainly true for most real estate investors.  So you can see why buyers more readily enter the market when they believe that prices are stable, after all who wants to buy a home if they believe it will be worth less tomorrow.  Price stability is on reason the Milken Institute ranked the Utah County area as the Best performing Metro Area.  We have seen strong job growth, wage appreciation and improvement in the high-tech sector. I can see the future looking bright, ... 11/01/2008

Nearly 280 residential homes and condos were sold in Orem during the first half of 2008. These homes sold for an average price of $226,249 and had a median sold price at a fairly affordable $193,000. Currently there are 556 home and condo listings in Orem. The number of active listings just continues to rise as home sales are staying pretty stagnant. From the date of Q2 sales stats, there is currently more than 10 months worth of residential real estate listings.. These listings have an average list price of $341,516, and a median list price that is 23% higher than the median list price homes in Orem are selling for. Many of the more expensive homes in Orem won't sell for a very long time. 07/17/2008

 Maybe we should arrest the owner of this land, since it's so brown. What is this world coming to?  People that have power, do they abuse it? Well, we know the answer to that question. But at what cost is power abused!!!There was a 70 old woman in Orem, Utah that was arrested Friday for refusing to accept a ticket for violating a city ordinance. Betty Perry hasn't watered her lawn in over a year because she can't just afford it. Okay, so this town has a city ordinance. Does the tax payers money go to police driving around looking at lawns? Shouldn't this be up to other township officials? I guess crime is very low in Orem, Utah.  Conclusion :  It's your property. Sure, beautification is mandatory in some towns, making it a law. You sometimes need a permit from your township to cut down ... 07/09/2007