Not every market is struggling. The truth is that many desirable neighborhoods and zip codes are still experiencing healthy inventory levels and conditions that promote multiple offers. As a buyer in these markets, how can you be competitive?

First, and perhaps most importantly, be ready to buy. Readiness is not impulsiveness, however. Before you begin your home search, be clear on your objectives. This means knowing your budget (and how much wiggle room you really have), what amenities are must-haves, and what things you can do without. By having a clear plan of action, you’ll know a good deal when you see it and won’t hesitate to act. Many would-be buyers miss out on their dream home because of hesitation. They need “the night to think about it” or “to see a few more” before they make a decision. If the home is a good price and in a desirable location, one night could mean missing out on the house altogether.

To take the preparation stage one step further, be absolutely sure you are pre-qualified and pre-approved for a loan. Do this before you even set foot in seller’s house. Why? You wouldn’t be the first buyer you puts in an offer on their dream home, only to find out financing has fallen through. Lending is tight right now. You may not qualify for as low of an interest rate as you would think. And for others, you may not qualify at all!
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And if you were pre-qualified or approved months ago, be sure to stay in contact with your lender, so that there are no surprises when it comes time to make an offer.

Communication doesn’t end there. Keep in contact with your agent about new listings and showings. Homes come on the market all the time, and in hot neighborhoods they don’t last long. If you wait even a few days, a home could be scooped up by another eager buyer.

Next, bid competitively. This is where your agent can be invaluable. They have access to your market’s stats, which show for how much comparable homes have been selling. This means you may be able to come in a little under list price and still be competitive, or it may mean that the property is already underpriced, and to beat out any other offers, you need to offer more than the asking price.

Competitive doesn’t mean handing everything to the seller on a sliver platter, though. Sellers may ask for certain concessions, such closing costs terms, as-is purchases (without an inspection contingency in the offer), and requests regarding closing dates. Some of these requests may seem reasonable to you, but don’t be afraid to stand your ground if others are too far-fetched.

And finally, stick to your guns. It can be easy to lose sight of your true end goal, which should be the home you love at a reasonable price. This means that your predetermined budget, well, it must remain your budget. Don’t overpay for a house simply because you’ve gotten caught up in the excitement of a bidding war.

Use these simple tips to help you navigate a tough market. Before you know it you’ll be signing on the dotted line for your new dream home.

By: realtytimes.com

Housing Affordability Rises to Record Levels
Nationwide housing affordability during the first quarter of 2011 rose to its highest level in the more than 20 years it has been measured, according to National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index (HOI) data released recently.

The HOI indicated that 74.6 percent of all new and existing homes sold in the first quarter of 2011 were affordable to families earning the national median income of $64,400. This eclipsed the previous high of 73.9 percent set during the fourth quarter of 2010 and marked the ninth consecutive quarter that the index has been above 70 percent. Until 2009, the HOI rarely topped 65 percent and never reached 70 percent.

“With interest rates remaining at historically low levels, today’s report indicates that homeownership is within reach of more households than it has been for more than two decades,” says Bob Nielsen, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a home builder from Reno, Nev. “While this is good news for consumers, home buyers and builders continue to confront extremely tight credit conditions, and this remains a significant obstacle to many potential home sales.”

Syracuse, N.Y. was the most affordable major housing market in the country during the first quarter of the year. In Syracuse, 94.5 percent of all homes sold were affordable to households earning the area’s median family income of $64,300.

Also ranking near the top of the most affordable major metro housing markets were Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, Ohio-Pa.; Indianapolis-Carmel, Ind.; Warren-Troy-Farmington Hills, Mich.; and Toledo, Ohio.

Among smaller housing markets, the most affordable was Kokomo, Ind., where 98.6 percent of homes sold during the first quarter of 2011 were affordable to families earning a median income of $61,400. Other smaller housing markets near the top of the index included Monroe, Mich.; Cumberland, Md.-W.Va.; Elkhart-Goshen, Ind.; and Springfield, Ohio.

New York-White Plains-Wayne, N.Y.-N.J., led the nation as the least affordable major housing market during the first quarter of 2011. In New York, 24.1 percent of all homes sold during the quarter were affordable to those earning the area’s median income of $65,600. This marks the 12th consecutive quarter that the New York metropolitan division has held this position.

Other major metro areas near the bottom of the affordability index included San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City, Calif.; Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, Calif.; Honolulu; and Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine, Calif., respectively.

San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles, Calif., where 47.6 percent of the homes were affordable to families earning the median income of $72,500, was the least affordable of the smaller metro housing markets in the country during the first quarter. Other small metro areas ranking near the bottom included Santa Cruz-Watsonville, Calif.; Laredo, Texas; Ocean City, N.J; and Santa Barbara-Santa Maria-Goleta, Calif.
by rismedia.com

A French drain, sometimes called a curtain drain, is a simple system with no moving parts — gravity removes excess water from problem areas in your yard. Give gravity a chance to do its job by making sure your French drain design has the proper slope from beginning to end.
Which end is up?
 
The two ends of a French drain system are:
-The drain field, or high end, where excess ground water enters the drain pipes
-The drain exit, or lowest point, where water leaves the system

A French drain needs a slope of no less than 1%. That means from the highest point of the drain field all the way to the drain exit, the system should slope at least 1 inch for every 8 feet of length.
Start with your exit strategy

Select a location on your property for the drain exit. The goal is to move water away from your house and foundation, or from the soaked part of your yard, to a drier area.

Good locations for drain exits:
-A grassy slope that’s exposed to the sun for most of the day. Grasses help absorb moisture and the sun aids evaporation.
-A spot closest to your problem area so you can keep the system as short as possible, saving costs.
-The street, so it can be carried away by your municipal storm drain system. But check with your local building department first.

Don’t locate the drain exit:
-Where runoff is directed toward a neighbor’s yard.
-Where the water could run onto a sidewalk or driveway and turn to ice during freezing weather. Directing drainage toward pavement often is a violation of building codes.
-Where runoff could cause erosion, such as a dirt slope with no protective vegetation.

Connecting to an existing drain line
Some houses have rain gutters that empty into an underground drainage system, which ties into a municipal storm drain. Your French drain can tie into this system also.

Local codes might require a backflow valve that prevents water from backing up onto your property if a clog occurs downstream. Expect to pay about $500 for a plumber to install this device.
If you can’t find a good place for your system to drain, you’ll need to empty your system into a dry well. A dry well is a vertical hole, typically about 4 feet deep and 1 foot in diameter, that’s filled with gravel. A dry well lets excess water be absorbed by the surrounding soils.

Determining proper slope
-If your yard is sloped, it may be easy to spot the high point (drain field) and low points (drain exit) for your system.
-If you’re not sure, use a line level to determine slope:
-Pound a stake into the problem area and another at a possible exit point.
-Tie a mason’s string to the stakes.
-Put a line level on the string. Pull the string taut and level.
-Measure the distance from the string to the ground at the stakes, and calculate the drainage slope.

Remember, you can add some slope when you install your system by digging the trench progressively deeper.
Using a professional to determine slope

A surveyor, civil engineer, or landscape contractor will use a tripod-mounted transit level to help you determine the slope you’ll need for your system and possible exit points. Expect to pay $150 to $250 for the service.
Route around roots and utilities

Plan to route your drain line around large trees to avoid cutting roots. Roots usually extend to the “drip line” of the tree—the outmost edge of its branches.

Call 811, the Call Before You Dig hotline to have the location of underground utility lines marked on your property. You want to check not only in areas where the drain will live but also where you might dig a dry well. This is a free service.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency is expected to reduce conforming loan limits on mortgages guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac this October. The hopeful anticipation is that demand driven by buyers looking to beat the deadline this summer will also drive up prices, thereby reducing recent dips in home values. But the rush may have less of an effect than thought, according to some analysts, and likely won’t last. The limits were originally raised in February 2008 as part of the economic stimulus, allowing the government-sponsored enterprises to guarantee more loans and more of the market at a time when private capital had all but vanished.

Home prices hit a new low in the first quarter of 2011, falling 4.2% on the S&P/Case-Shiller index to levels not seen since 2002.
A variety of reasons were given, including a glut of distressed properties on the market, tighter lending requirements and an uncertain regulatory environment continues to keep demand at bay.
Anthony Sanders, a professor of real estate finance at George Mason University said the scramble to get ahead of the conforming loan limit cuts – which would drive up costs for loans higher than the new limits – could push prices back up. “But that will be a short-lived blip, much like the Administration’s tax credit,” Sanders said in a blog post this week.

When it comes to private mortgage insurance (MI), there are several myths that exist that make buyers reluctant to consider a conventional loan with MI as an option when purchasing a home. One of the more common misconceptions is that cancelling MI is a difficult—not to mention time-consuming—process.

The irony is that the majority of buyers don’t harbor those same beliefs or reservations about an FHA insured loan when, in reality, FHA coverage may be less easily cancelled, or take longer to cancel, than MI.

HPA Makes Cancellation Clearer
When it went into effect as a new federal law, the Homeowners Protection Act (HPA) of 1998—which applies to both FHA and MI insured loans—required lenders and servicers to provide disclosures regarding MI for residential loans obtained on or after July 29, 1999. Prior to this, consumers were responsible for requesting MI cancellation if they met two factors: one, their loan balance was paid down to 80 percent of the property; and two, they had a good payment history.

While many lenders obliged consumer requests to drop MI coverage, consumers had sole responsibility for keeping track of their loan balance.

The HPA established three different times when a lender or servicer must notify consumers of their rights.

At loan closing, lenders must disclose:
• The right to request MI cancellation and the date on which the request can be made
• The requirement that MI be automatically terminated and the date on which this will occur
• Any exemptions to the right to cancellation or automatic termination
• A written initial amortization schedule for fixed-rate loans only

Each year, loan servicers must send borrowers a written statement that discloses:
• The right to cancel or terminate MI
• An address and telephone number to contact the loan servicer for determining when MI may be cancelled

When MI coverage is cancelled or terminated, lenders must send a notification to borrowers stating:
• MI has been terminated, and the borrower no longer has MI coverage
• No further MI premiums are due

Termination of Coverage
Under the terms of the HPA, mortgage lenders or servicers must automatically cancel borrower-paid MI coverage when the mortgage has amortized to 78 percent of the original property value, with all unearned premiums returned to the borrower within 45 days of the cancellation or termination date. This provision also requires that the borrower be current on mortgage payments required by the terms of the loan, and if the loan is delinquent on the date of automatic termination, a lender must terminate the coverage as soon as the loan becomes current.

Cancellation of Coverage
Also under the HPA, a homeowner has the right to request MI cancellation when the mortgage balance reaches 80 percent of the original property value. All payments must be current, meaning a homeowner must not be 30 days late on a mortgage payment within one year of their request, or 60 days late within two years.

However, a borrower can only initiate a cancellation request for FHA based on their prepayment of the loan, and even then, it can only be requested beginning five years after the loan origination date.

With MI, homeowners can request cancellation based on prepayment of the loan, as well as an appraisal. Despite falling property values, it’s possible for homeowners to gain enough equity in their home to request cancellation in less than five years based on a home appraisal.

Why This Matters to Agents
By understanding these rules and what they mean for homeowners, real estate agents can educate their buyers to help them better evaluate allof their home financing options based on facts rather than myths.

This is even more important considering the FHA’s recent price increase, which has reduced buyers’ purchasing power and increased monthly mortgage payments.

Article by Brien McMahon & RISMedia, June 3, 2011 Brien McMahon is chief franchise officer of Radian Guaranty Inc