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Everett, WA Real Estate News

By Kirk Williams
(Private Venture Capital )
Stealing and changing the title a bit from the Britney Spears "hit" song whenever it came out was inspired by HUD's latest announcement that it is considering "Civil Money Penalties" against the FHA underwriter if HUD FEELS (I emphasize the word FEELS) the underwriter didn't underwrite the loan properly. HUH? I wonder if Britney Spears is now in charge of HUD. Nope it is Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan the man on an island along with the rest of Washington DC. Does anybody really believe our government and its agencies know anything?  Timothy Geitner Treasury Secretary recently stated "regulatory overhaul without limiting consumer choice of financial products or stifling competition" was the focus. Yet Mr. Donovan of HUD (or somebody inside the HUD house) comes up with a bizarre plan to...
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By Diana Young
(Staging Seattle, King & Snohomish Counties)
Everett, WA Condo Community - Sometimes certain pieces in our staging inventory get a reputation.  Our "lucky" orange sofa has been one of those items.  We purchased this sofa about two years ago and it seems that every time we use it to stage a house the property sells in a heartbeat.  Very rarely is this sofa in our warehouse as we keep it very busy staging and selling homes! Just yesterday we moved it to yet another home for sale.  We moved it literally down the street and around the corner to a new home, the fourth home it has enjoyed in this development of 36 new homes.  You see, wherever this orange sofa goes, the green $$$ is sure to follow! Staging by SISTERS Interior Redesign, Edmonds, WA, www.sistersredesign.com, 425.776.7890 Give your listings the advantage of professional re...
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By Don Sieb
(HomeSeeker Center)
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is unveiling a new Mortgage Program to provide support to state and local housing agencies to provide Mortgage Help to thousands of home buyers and renters. The administration said the new program would help to support low mortgage rates and expand resources for low and middle income borrowers who want to buy or rent a home. The program will feature two parts a new bond purchase program to support new lending by housing finance agencies and a temporary credit and liquidity program to improve access by housing agencies to credit sources for their existing bonds. The new program will operate under a law that Congress passed in 2008 to bolster the housing industry, which has been battered by the worst slump in decades, a downturn that saw home sales a...
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By Kirk Williams
(Private Venture Capital )
The VA (Veterans Administration) loan continues to quietly perform - zero down, seller paid closing costs, seller can pay revolving debt for buyer under certain circumstances and the default rate is only 4.69% confirming the myth the down payment is a crucial component for a loan to perform is FALSE! The VA has always been a full document loan and not only looks at the veterans debt to income but also looks at residual income. In other words folks the focus here and with most loans that perform since the beginning of time is the ability to REPAY the loan not whether there is a down payment or not. You must be active or have served in the military to be eligible. Over the two plus decades it has been a privilege to provide home loans to our brave men and women serving our country. Next ...
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By Kirk Williams
(Private Venture Capital )
Unfortunately the short sale is more common place than it should be. I was researching some other topic and I came across this video by Annie Fitzsimmons posted on the "Washington Realtor" website and it is a three part series. For the seller I recommend part one and for the potential buyer I recommend Part III in this three part series and recommend anyone to go through all of it to learn how the banking industry handles (or does not handle) this stuff and why it takes patience and perseverance for those participating in this exercise. The link is below. http://www.warealtor.org/short-sales/ The bottom line is if you plan on selling via short sale, Deed in Lieu or letting your home go to foreclosure it would be good to talk to an attorney to make sure you understand the implications of...
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By Kirk Williams
(Private Venture Capital )
We have seen folks in my profession come and go due to market conditions and even though 99 banks have failed since Wall Street handed to us this financial calamity, it does not match the 500 or so banks that failed back in 1989 (Savings & Loan) however today the situation is worse now than it was then. According to the State of Washington Department of Finance, the number of licensed loan originators in December of 2007 was at 13,722. December 2008 - 7,863 and 4,597 renewed for 2009 and I'm guessing the number of active licensed loan originators is lower than the number of '09 renewals as I sit here today. It is likely the trend we see here in Washington is repeated all across America and consumer access to seasoned experienced professional loan originators will diminish and history te...
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By Kirk Williams
(Private Venture Capital )
Sixty million dollar Obama program says "we know best" and wants to review your loan docs....I KNOW how cool is that? (he says in a tone of resentment) They (the government) think they are better equipped to tell you how to manage your money! Well bust my buttons - 24 national and regional organizations, 5 multi state organizations plus 463 state and local housing counseling agencies. Yippeee!!! (getting a little more smarmy) 4400 counselors will be available to add their opinion about your loan. I am in awe of my government - how do I put my pants on in the morning? So let's review. You will have 2 inches of disclosures thanks to Barney Frank and friends from both sides of the isle plus I will be disclosing the disclosures I disclosed to you after I initially disclosed it to you - (and...
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Snohomish County, HomeSeeker Center Announces New Web Release 4.0 to include a Mortgage Resource Center   By: Don Sieb Snohomish County, WA. HomeSeeker Center (HSC) announced a new service (4.0 Release) Mortgage Resource Center  integrated into its latest release of its web portal. HomeSeeker Center is a unique real estate website in that it is content rich to assist both Buyers and Seller to learn more about local market conditions, find for the best deals in real estate, search NWMLS listings, to assist homeowners at risk of losing their homes, determine the value of a home they own and now valuable information about unique home loan programs available. HSC is dedicated to providing resources to assist Buyers and Sellers in making informed decisions. The Mortgage Resource Center is de...
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By Kirk Williams, MLO 80507
(Primary Residential Mortgage Inc )
I recommend you to read the New York Times op/ed piece and then forward it to your Representative. We all need to be pro-active and engage our representation. The days of standing up for your party should be over .... you should be standing up for your family, your schools, your infrastructure your country. The tiring rhetoric from both fringes leave out the most important group....most of us...the two hundred million plus. Do yourself a favor...quit carrying the water for those that do not care and speak for yourself. See below: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/14/opinion/14wed1.html?_r=3   I wish us all well.
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By Kirk Williams
(Private Venture Capital )
Historically it is the lobbyist that writes the bills and our representation puts a bow on it and calls it representing "their constituency". Whats transparent are the  lobbyists stomping around trying to get 'their say' in writing to water what they can down be it Health Care, Wall Street regulation or what the next 'stimulus' package should look like...or what I like to call the "simulus" package" (simulates or poses as a solution the result being modest and very short term results and terrible waste of money). Harold Meyerson writes a great piece today and I wish to point it out to all plus I encourage you to send it to your Representative to remind them there is a little thing called the economy out there. The same old lobby activity goes on and this piece points out the usual playe...
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Snohomish County, Extending the Tax Credit for First Time Buyers   By:  Don Sieb According to the New York Times, The Democratic leaders met with the president to discuss a broad range of options to combat persistent high unemployment, officials say. The existing credit for first-time home buyers will expire at the end of next month if not extended, and two other components of the economic safety net — unemployment compensation and health care benefits for those who have been out of work for long periods — will expire at the end of the year. Besides the likelihood of extending those measures, which were part of the $787 billion stimulus law earlier this year, the president and Congress were also weighing additional steps, given projections that jobs will continue to be lost into the mid...
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The credit score system has not only cannibalized the lending world creating false barriers preventing the deserving applicant experiencing life on life terms from getting a decent interest rate it has now given cover to lenders to create more barriers for the non-score applicant.  Traditionally HUD (FHA loan) allowed us to construct non-traditional credit ratings from sources such as the cable company, insurance agents the list goes on. Traditionally we would take the non-traditional credit and submit the file for what we call a manual underwrite which simply means a real person underwrites the file performing traditional risk analysis underwriting to determine the applicants credit worthiness and ability to repay the loan.  Today the lenders no longer allow us to represent the un-repr...
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Snohomish County, Making Homes Affordable Program:  Help for the  Unemployed? By:  Don Sieb With all the fanfare surrounding the Making Home Affordable program, it’s easy to forget that one of the largest causes of foreclosure remains unaddressed–most lenders refuse to modify or refinance home loans for the unemployed, even when simply refinancing to today’s lower rates would make the loan safer. Generally, there are guidelines that require the borrower to have sufficient income to refinance or make a modified payment before being granted a loan modification. So if you lose your job you are probably out of luck–in six months when you get a new one, you may have already lost your home to foreclosure. Congress is trying to help you now. Reps. Barney Frank, Chaka Fattah, Elijah Cummings, a...
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Investors Buying Troubled Real Estate Loans from Banks HomeSeeker Center By:  Don Sieb It is not a game for novices or for anyone lacking courage. But for investors with the right expertise and a serious appetite for risk, the credit crisis is shaping up as a once-in-a-lifetime chance to buy troubled real estate assets on the cheap. A brisk trade in some of these assets is already under way, with investors buying and selling billions of dollars in distressed bank loans backed by collateral like homes, land and commercial properties. Many of these problem loans trade on eBay-like auction Web sites, which have grown rapidly over the last year. “All of a sudden, it’s in vogue to want to buy distressed assets,” said Kingsley Greenland, president of DebtX, the industry leader in online loan ...
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By Kirk Williams, MLO 80507
(Primary Residential Mortgage Inc )
You can't wait any longer if you wish to buy or refinance and take advantage of the low rates. The government intervention into the mortgage backed security market is almost over and that means rates will start to rise. There is no talk about further intervention as we sit here today that's why I am making this declaration. Next year this time we may be in the mid six percent range so if you can buy now....BUY. If you can refinance now REFINANCE NOW. Don't get greedy or cute because you will get burned or as they say....pigs get slaughtered. I wish us all well.  
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By: Don SiebHomeSeeker Center   Everett, WA shows signs of Real Estate Prices Stabilizing. This is good news for both Buyers and Sellers.  A total of 976 homes have been on the market for an average of just under 6 months. Generally 6 months of inventory is considered good in a stable market.  Inventory is tightening and days on market is falling. Buyers should find ample choices across multiple price ranges. As expected, homes priced in the least expensive and lower-middle quartiles are selling best. This is likely to be a result of First-time buyers and investors re-entering the market. To see what is happening in your neighborhood agents and consumers are welcome to request a Free Market Watch Report for cities within Pierce, King and Snohomish Counties. Market Statistics City Overvi...
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By Kirk Williams, MLO 80507
(Primary Residential Mortgage Inc )
In another impotent attempt to do something (driving blind folded) our government rolled out the 3.9 billion dollar Neighborhood Stabilization Act (NSA) designed to purchase properties going into foreclosure in hopes of stabilizing a real estate market that is declining according to our government.  This is another example of spending money instead of setting the table allowing the consumer to recover on their own. Every single program implemented from the Bush Administration and by our current Administration have failed miserably and has cost all of us billions.  Eighteen months of hearings by Frank & Dodd interviewing CEO's of banks and no meaningful system holding banks accountable forcing them to make meaningful note modifications for those homeowners still employed exists. The gove...
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By Kirk Williams
(Private Venture Capital )
The forecast tonight is more ignorance (just like rain) falling upon us from DC. The long-term forecast - the real estate market will continue to take a beating because congress just doesn't get it.  I'm back and here to rant. The newest self-proclaimed hero coming to the rescue on behalf of the consumer is Representative Garrett of New Jersey. He follows a long line of stupid from the east coast featuring the unflappable Barney Frank (MA) and Mr. Cuomo the Attorney General from New York.  The hits keep rolling in with no meaningful results but the banks (all three of them) will continue to take advantage of the consumer - "the biggest loser". The bank lobby has a stranglehold on congress and we, as a nation will pay for that.  Defaults have hit HUD depleting the reserves below 2% (mand...
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HomeSeeker Center By Don Sieb There is definitely buying opportunities to find bargains at Foreclosure-Sheriff’s Sale in Everett, Snohomish County. Everyone has seen the late night infomercials about how easy it is to buy real estate at a REO auction and make a quick buck. Perhaps you attended one of the many Foreclosure seminars, sound good does in it? The reality is that it is not as easy as they make it sound. Where: Auctions for Snohomish County are held at on the steps in Front of North Entrance of the Snohomish County Courthouse (3000 Rockefeller Ave, Everett, WA.) When: Auctions are held each Friday morning. Interested Buyers should plan to arrive early; auctions usually start at 10:00AM. Learn Everything You Can So You Are Prepared Before An Auction Buyers Beware: REO property m...
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By Freddy Delgadillo, Real Estate Broker specializing Greater Eastside
(Judah Realty Group)
Successful real estate short sale in Everett was part due to my professional team that I have put together. If you're thinking of selling your home, or condo (short sale) to avoid foreclosure because you're behind on your mortgage payments, haven't paid your HOA Dues (Home Owner Assoc. Dues), or property taxes, give me a call so that I may assist you and help prevent foreclosure. I have assembled a team of highly qualified professionals that focus and specialize in foreclosures, short sales, new construction and investment properties. To see our results email me or call me...  We work in the Greater Seattle / Eastside area and also in Snohomish County. Freddy M. Delgadillo / Realtor 425-941-8688 (Direct) / 425-642-8273 (Fax) www.FreddysHomes.com freddy@freddyshomes.com   Referrals and t...
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