All About New Hampshire Real Estate!
Updated several times a week with new news and info!All the info you need!!
Our goal is to give you all the info you need regarding real estate in New Hampshire through useful data and sales info, useful links, and frequent updates on new real estate related news. In addition we can provide you access the entire New Hampshire Realtor MLS database, allowing you to search for every home listed with New Hampshire Realtors AND it's updated hourly! Plus you can now get a FREE online market analysis of your properties value with no obligation.
Current Real Estate News
(Today!) New Hampshire- Welcome to ALLABOUTNHRE.COM - Articles pertaining to New Hampshire Real Estate will be posted frequently. Included will be both articles authored by John R. Fisher, Realtor, of Prudential Verani-Foster Realty and links to articles published elsewhere. New data will be added weekly for sales and market conditions. Everyone wants to know "what's going on" and this site will tell you! Suggestions welcomed.
The 2007/2008/2009 Mortgage and Foreclosure Crisis! Give me a call if you'd like a list of foreclosures in your area. I know the market and how to buy these successfully. I'm rehabing one I bought myself right now! (603) 674-4675. - Also, I'm passing on commenting on the current financial mess on Wall Street. Its being beaten to death in the press and no one really knows what they are talking about. I'm sticking to Real Estate...at least until the dust settles.
Read all past archived news articles by clicking here. See how I predicted all of this mortgage mess!
Happy 4th! Celebrate Freedom and email the whacko's in Washington and tell them you reject Socialism! And tell them that inviting the Iranian diplomats around the world to come to our embassies for a hot dog was a dumber idea than sending diplomats to Tehran with a cake way back when!
(7/3/2009) We have to stop this somehow! Ok Wama Bama and Bwarwy Fwank and the rest have totally gone off their rockers! I just want to grab anyone that voted for these clowns by the throat and shake them while screaming "See See What did you think would happen!" Have you been paying attention to this Cap and Trade bill madness? (When did we start having Congress vote on bills they have not yet seen? Has this always been going on or is this a part of "Change" we were promised?) Anyway, this Cap and Trade has a "feature" that will further drive down the housing market and increase short sales and foreclosures! If passed by the Senate you will have to have an "energy inspection" on your home before you sell it! If it doesn't pass for things such as windows, heating systems, appliances etc you will have to upgrade them to pass the new code! I guess the jobs creation will be the new inspectors for this insanity as well as more auctioneers to sell the foreclosed properties this will create! Can you imagine this? Lets say my old antique building in Wilton had this inspection. It has 44 older style windows. Do the math on what that would cost? All this will do is make it harder or impossible for people to sell their homes and if you think we have a lot of foreclosures now .......Ha Ha wait for this one! So then they'll print more money to bail out more banks, or maybe give homeowners money to upgrade these things. Do these simpletons think that this is an effective way to create jobs? Spain did this and they have 16% unemployment. I'm beginning to believe the nut jobs that claim Obama and his minions really want to make things worse so that they can have more of us dependant on them. They can't be so stupid as to think this will actually be a good thing.... can they? Call and email and call your Senator and tell them to stop this madness!
(6/05/2008)Craig's List Rental Scam! Our good friends from Nigeria are at it again! I'm guessing its the same low lifes that brought you the "I have 5 bazillion dollars I need to Xfer and will gladly pay you..." On this one they are taking data from real MLS listings for properties for sale, scraping the data and pics, and then putting the home on Craig's List for rent at a very low price. When you answer ad via email they reply back that they are from NH and are missionaries in Nigeria for 3 years, that they had their home rented but the renters moved out and they just want some good decent people to live there cheaply to take care of their home. All you have to do is wire the deposit to them and the rental is yours! If you do a drive by you'll even see a real estate sign adding legitimacy in the minds of some potential renters. Geez Louise.... yet another scam! So the bottom line is if its too good to be true it is! And never do any business on a rental or sale if someone is not willing to meet with you live.
(6/04/2008)Open House Thefts Well this was bound to happen. I just want to be clear that this is not a common occurrence but it is also something that I have always been concerned about. I'm predicting we are going to see and hear more of this. I once had an open house where a group of people came in together and immediately went off in different directions while one of them tried to keep me busy in conversation. I smelled a rat and I was all over the house and in their face. I really felt like it was an attempt to either steal or case the place. Only happened once and nothing was missing. Still, I don't recommend open houses except for new construction. I think the internet, multi photos online and virtual tours have put open houses into the same trash bin as real estate agents having the big thick book of listings that they could not let you take home (old enough to remember those days?). The truth is is that most agents like to do open houses even though very few homes are sold this way anymore. Agents like it because it helps them find customers for future business AND so many sellers still demand open houses... so it makes the seller happy. Me? I prefer to tell my sellers the truth, point out the risks and let them decide if they want an open house. Any time you have your home on the market you need to be careful with things that could be easily stolen. Its never been a problem here in NH but as times change we should also. Click here (this link will open a new window- if it does not work right click and select "Open in a new window")
(5/05/2008) MakingHomeAffordable.gov/ Here's a link to the government web site on Bama and the Fed's (sounds like a 50's rock band eh?:) latest effort to help folks in mortgage distress. You may be and/or will be seeing ads in print and on TV offering to help you "thru the process" (I saw one on NECN today) by private companies that are, in my opinion, predators that are simply trolling around to take advantage of people in trouble. Go straight to the source and get help yourself without the middle man who's looking to make a buck off of you without adding any real value. Please let me know your experiences with this site, good or bad. I'll blog on that at a later date. Click here (this link will open a new window- if it does not work right click and select "Open in a new window")
(5/01/2008) INSIDE WASHINGTON: Taxpayers to get rude surprise OK I blogged about this earlier in the year when it wasn't getting much press. Wouldn't call Yahoo "much press" but at least someone is talking about this. This is nothing but a TOTAL scam by our government. I'm half expecting Bama and congress to change their mailing address to a strip mall in Florida with the way they do business! That great big tax break that all the Dems like to throw back at people that complain about taxes (such as the Tea Party people) fail to mention that many people will be paying it back because of this little trick by the man behind the mirror! And don't forget that they are letting the Bush tax cuts expire. So, when someone tells you Bama is lowering taxes for 95% of Americans get in their face with some facts! Arrggg. One a side note to keep the real estate connection- Have you seen interest rates? And prices? Its a great time to buy. Either for your main home, a second home or for an investment. Call me and ask me about foreclosures if you're thinking its time to jump on the bandwagon. (from finance.yahoo.com/) Click here (this link will open a new window- if it does not work right click and select "Open in a new window")
04-15-2009 National Grants Conference Got a call from someone today asking what I knew about an upcoming "free" National Grants Conference in Burlington Mass. Its supposed to tell you how to get grant money for home buying, business start ups etc. I'm not going to go down the path of commenting on something I am not familiar with but if you are thinking of attending google "National Grants" and read away. Warning! Its not pretty!
(03-26-2009)Reasons to buy RIGHT NOW!Ok Ok - I promise. This is not going to be a sales pitch! Just straightforward honest facts sprinkled with wise sage and opinion:)
First, have you noticed interest rates? Below 5% for most types of home loans! Yikes! (as a side note it makes sense to re-fi if you have anything over 6% for a home loan now-call me at 6036744675 and I can advise you on your homes value as it has to appraise) So are you someone that is still waiting for the bottom? And you refuse to see it my way when I tell you that the only way you can see the bottom is in your rear view mirror when its heading back up? Ok, well try this math. I think most everyone agrees these interest rates can't stay this low for long. With Bama printing money faster than a teenager can text inflation has got to be coming. Remember the Jimmy Carter days and 14% home loans? Lucky you if you're too young to have experienced that mess. So....if you finance $200K for 30 years at 5% you will pay back $386K over the life of the loan. At 7% you're paying back $479K! At 10% it would be $632K! So if you wait for the market to drop another 10% and save $20K off the price of the house but interest rates go up you are loosing money.
Second, for first time buyers the $8K tax credit goes poof in July!
Third, if cities and towns start using stimulus money to buy foreclosed homes they are going to reduce the inventory and drive prices up. There's a lot of "if's" with this concept but I'll go out on a limb and say that IF cities and towns start buying then we'll see the market hit bottom if its not already there and nothing crazy or outrageous but we'll start seeing prices increase slightly. So...what are you waiting for?
(03-18-2009)The 3 Stooges ride again!No wait. That would be an insult to the 3 Stooges to compare these clowns to them! Did you see Bwarny Fwank, Mumbles Menino and Mr. Duvall Rogers-Patrick on the news this past weekend standing in front of boarded up multi familes? I'm telling you Bwarny Fwank has either no clue, no shame or no brains! Or a scary combination of the 3! How he can stand in front of a disaster he had a key role in creating and then rail against others for causing this is beyond explanation! So their grand plan, and its a social program not a stimulus effort, is to create "affordable housing" for people. That's nice and all that but it doesn't fix anything and its not right. Let me give you an example: someone looses there house due to a job loss or illness. These 3 clowns want to provide money (ie your's and mine) to non profits to fix these properties up and give them to people they deem "worthy" or in need. Now my ideas will go nowhere with these clowns but what about the people that lost these properties to begin with? The average hard working Joe that lost his job or got sick? Are they going to give back to him? I doubt it. Its going to go to someone that has been a non producer for a long time is my bet. Heck even the speculator in my mind that lost a property would be more deserving of getting the property back. I know I know this sounds cruel but look at it this way...at least the speculator was out there trying! They made bad decisions but they were working and trying and not sitting around figuring out new ways to scam the government out of free stuff by not trying or working. One of my favorite sayings is "Give a man a fish he eats for a day, teach him to fish and he eats for a lifetime". These clowns want to continue to build a system of government where as many people as to possible have to come to them (and vote for them!) for their daily fish! Handing out housing is a dangerous path, even when done under the guise of non profits. Housing, like everything in life, should be something you have to work hard for.
And....these dummies do not understand there is a fix for not having to stand in front of boarded up buildings and the solutions are cheap and easy but of course it doesn't create more dependant voters for them. The solution is twofold. First, as I've said before on this blog...open up FHA203K fixer upper financing to investors! Within months these houses would be back up and running! Second, and these guys should like this as they get to push the banks around. Part of the foreclosure process is to go in and evict everyone living in a property. For a single family it makes sense. They can't sell it if the previous owner still lives there. For a multi they still go in an evict everyone. Its an interesting law that a lease to rent survives a sale and must be honored but it doesn't survive a foreclosure. Now the reason they evict is the idea that they are not in the rental business and do not know how or want to manage such. An empty and winterized building is a fixed cost is their logic. The other idea is its still easier to sell empty. I propose the both concepts are wrong and banks are shooting themselves in the foot (or the butt!). They first go thru a long time period of at least months and the expense of eviction. They also have carrying costs such as taxes. When they get the building empty its usually trashed by angry tenants and then it takes weeks for the banks to get a contractor in there to "preserve" the building. If its in the winter the pipes freeze, there's water damage etc. Losers break in and vandalize them and do things like steal the copper plumbing and aluminum siding. So now their asset is worth MUCH less to sell and they wind up re-couping less and less money. For many investors they'd rather see the tenants stay. It would make it easier to finance the property with existing tenants. The banks could hire real estate agents or management companies to manage the properties until they sell and the costs to them would be pennies compared to what they are doing today. We would not see these boarded up properties. Fwank, Mumbles and Rogers would not get involved with all their incompetencies, inefficiencies and corruption and the tax payers would not take a bath! And....it would not be evicting innocent renters that have nothing (presumably nothing-if they are not paying rent then evict them like anyone else that does not pay) to do with the problem. It would be doing the "right thing". Hell.... I think it would still help these guys buy votes from renter. That should motivate them. They could force this by changing the law that says a lease goes poof with foreclosure. Simple, cheap and the right thing to do. Well..that means that's not going to happen!
(03/14/2009)Eliminate all your debt in 5 years! Uh huh. You've seen the ads. Read the spam. What's up with this? Nothing but some ways to sell you info that is mostly already known and or obvious and packaged in a such as was as to make you want to spend money that you don't need to spend. The first pitch goes something like this and its not a bad one. Lets say you are paying on a mortgage with a 7% interest rate. And then you have your savings in a savings account or a CD that's paying 3% or less. If you used that money to pay down your mortgage you'd be making/saving 4%. Of course you shouldn't use your rainy day fund for something like this. And how many of you have lots of extra cash laying around? (Looks for a show of hands....) I didn't think so. And...I have a better idea if you don't mind some risk. Use your extra cash to buy some bank owned multi family properties. If you can come up with the 25% down, have an extra $20K or so for repairs, a simple two family can generate $2400 or so per month. Even if your profit is only $500 a month on your $50K investment you're still making 10% on your money. Anyway, other things these plans talk about are basics like budgeting, not going out to eat etc. Then they even get into bankruptcy discussions if you have a lot of credit card debt. So...my point is don't pay for this mediocre info. Use your favorite search engine and search for "ways to pay off my mortgage in 5 years" etc and you'll find it all for free and find out its not really going to work for you in general. Now that said..... BAMA wants to change bankruptcy laws to allow judges to rewrite your mortgage amount and terms. Not sure how that will pan out (except to make it even harder to get a loan) but it could make bankruptcy more attractive. I'm even going to make a prediction that Bama is going to role back the changes from about 8 years ago that made bankruptcy not as attractive for just making all your debt go poof. If that happens take a number....lots of folks will go down that path.
(03/13/2009) Its not like I have nothing to write about! The reason I have not been blogging is that my brain has been overwhelmed with the stupidity of the Bama organization and the banks! I've not known where to start! And its not ending! We had a short little stock market rally going and then Bama comes out today and says "the economy is not as bad as it seems" after he's spent his first month in office (and his entire campaign) telling us how bad it is and how its going to get worse! Ya thunk maybe the markets are maybe totally confused by this guy?
Well, here's a piece of news you won't read about anyplace else that is a glowing example of the stupidity out there. Last week they changed the criteria on counting rental income for qualifying for a loan. You now have to have 6 Months! reserves of mortgage payments, taxes and insurance for EACH building you own. So even a little guy like me with a couple of duplexes has to have between $20-30K per building sitting in savings. You take one of the folks that has a lot of rental units as a primary business and they would easily need millions in the bank! Which of course they don't have. So some guy with say $100K of profit per year from his rental business is not going to get anymore loans to buy more property. Neither is the small guy with one or two buildings. And its NOT going to be the government that solves this crisis! Its going to be the small investor like you and me buying these properties. But they just put the brakes on us doing anything until they loosen the lending terms. And you know what my paranoid brain is screaming??? That the socialists like Bama and Barnwy Fwank and Nancy (I got my own Air Force) Polosi have sent billions of dollars around the country to cities and towns to buy these properties and what they've done is not stupid but a calculated move to get competition out of the way of having your cities and towns buy these properties and be declared the heroes. T problem is that if no one is qualified to buy properties then prices will drop even more hurting everyone. Now maybe they think that after the local governments have bought up all these properties they'll open up the lending criteria again so we can all buy them from the government??? I know paranoid but ya got to look at what and who we are dealing with. So...maybe Barnwy Fwank is smarter than I think and this is a grand plan to "steal" property and spend tax dollars buying it back, then selling it to the tax payers and declaring themselves heroes! Or maybe its just more complete and total bumbling by Washington bureaucrats that have no clue. Either way this is not a good thing.
(02/16/2009) The insanity continues! PART DEUX! OK now they've passed the Porkulus/Spendulus Bill and its nuts! I'll focus on the real estate aspect of this but trust me friends this garbage of printing money and giving it to pork projects (Can you believe the audacity of Bama when he actually said "this bill has no earmarks in it"?????) like money to protect an endangered mouse in San Fran for instance. And did you see Gov Mr. Rogers down in Mass has created a new position for $150K per year for someone to help him spend his share of the money! Ok ok I could go on forever. Here's the real estate angle on this.
First....it amazes me that these IDIOTS (yes I've lost it- I have great respect and admiration for the offices these people hold but absolutely none for them as leaders, legislators or even as people) cannot, do not or will not acknowledge what caused the housing meltdown. They keep harping on "greed" etc. Sorry but that's lame. It was and is plain and simple. Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac, thru the likes of Barney Fwank, loosened and loosened the lending criteria for loans that they would insure. They did this out of perhaps good hearted desires by Barney and other sad sacks that wanted to increase housing ownership in the country that already has the highest home ownership rates in the world. They wanted EVERYONE a chance to own homes. Noble goal but about as realistic as giving oneself a root canal and expecting it to work and be painless. Sad reality of the world is not everyone is going to be able to own a home. Some just fall on bad times. That's life. Some are lazy. That's reality. Do you know that they were even allowing people to use welfare income to qualify for a home loan??????? Is that nuts? Since when did welfare become a long term source of income? Then you get into the stated income loans, which were originally designed for business owners who had up and down years and would not qualify on a down year. Those loans became available to anyone with good credit. Bad move. Then we went from requiring some amount of a down payment, even 5%, to zero down and even 105% financing. So...was it greed? Well if you call giving a 10 year old the keys to your car and then try to blame the car manufacturer when he runs someone over greed...well....
No, it was stupidity from the bleeding hearts like Barney Fwank that took what seemed like a good idea (increasing home ownership) and screwed up royally.
Ok now about the porkulus bill. In it is 4BILLION for cities and towns to buy foreclosed properties. Again sounds like a feel good idea from a mental midget like Barney Fwank doesn't it? (Are these the same brains that legislated out of existance 3 gallon per flush toilets and replaced them with 1.5 gallon per flush ones that you now have to flush 3 times not including when they become plugged????) Well here's the problem with that. First off NO city or town has the extra manpower or expertise to start buying, rehabbing and selling properties. So first off they will do what Gov Mr Rogers above did and spend some of that money on hiring people, buying them computers, etc .
In the end we may get some contractors and some real estate agents some work. We may get some properties off the market. All using funny money that was printed up at the tax payers expense. Has the government ever shown the ability to buy, fix and sell homes? In more corrupt areas, say like Boston, you'll be seeing I-Team reports on the news of contracts going to relatives, $300 toilet seats etc etc. This provision is going to be the Big Dig of housing!
And here's the sad news. There's a way to address this problem in a manner that would cost us NOTHING! It would get contractors and builders back to work at no cost to the tax payer. FHA has a loan program that is currently only available to owner occupied properties called a 203K rehab loan. It works like a construction loan where you get money to close on the property and then after you close money is disbursed as repairs are made. Its a great program that only requires 3% down and you're off and running. The program used to be open to non owner occupied properties but no longer is. If it was opened back up for qualified non owner occs you'd see an IMMEDIATE flurry of contractors/builders (all of whom need work) buying up and then renting or selling these properties. People would get employed, prices would stabilize and cities and towns would get these properties occupied and rehabbed helping to improve neighborhood values. The risks would be minimal but I can say with confidence that any losses/defaults would be small and would no way equal a fraction of the $4Bil in funny money that we are going to print for this bill that the next generation will have to pay back. Now I know the bleeding hearts like Bama and Fwank have no real interest in seeing working people like contractors and builders make money. They're seeing this as an opportunity to buy the votes of people like those asking for hand outs at Bama's town meeting in FLA last week. (Did you see that? I was embarassed to think that that was being shown on TV sets around the world!) Here's my final big prediction on this... if its not already buried in the porkulus bill they are going to put something on the books requiring that some percentage of these rehabbed homes be given to the poor, or sold at a greatly discounted rate. They screwed up once with their efforts to something to someone that cannot afford it and they'll just go out and do it again! You just watch. This will be nothing but a social program, not a stimulus.
(1/17/2009) The insanity continues! SOMEONE MAKE THEM STOP! NO MORE GIVING OUR TAX MONEY TO THE STUPID BANKS AND LENDING COMPANIES! Here's a true story that I have firsthand knowledge of. This is typical of what is going on with foreclosures. This is nuts and these lending companies should not get one more cent of our tax dollars. They should be allowed to go belly up!
OK here's the story. Lets see what you think. Early in 2007 my wife and I decided we should start buying multi families and rehab them. There was a 4 unit in Nashua listed for $240K. Sold 2 years previous for around $370K. The $240K price was a short sale. We offered, with the seller paying some closing costs, around $220K effective price for the seller. I did some research and figured the lender was into the property for about $280K. The property also needed a lot of work. My estimate was about $80K of immediate repairs needed. I should also mention it had two 4 bedroom and two 2 bedroom units. With a mortgage in the $300K range it was still going to cash flow nicely. The numbers worked. So...we presented the offer and after 4 months of no communications or even a COUNTER OFFER they just foreclosed on it. Ok that's typical. Stupid but typical. If you're a regular reader of this blog you'll remember my tales last year of having full price offers on homes the day before foreclosure and having the bank not even be willing to look at the offer. So.....we moved on and bought another property. I've been watching this one and it came on the market after foreclosure for $240K. Then it dropped to $219K. $199K. $174900. $149K. $99K. Then finally $80K and it went pending! $80 freaking K for a 4 family! One that they had an offer of $220K for a year ago! How nuts is that? They are just flushing money down the toilet! And they want taxpayer money to keep them a float? I'd be less angry if they were going out and having big parties with the money! This insanity has got to stop and I don't think the idiots in Washington have a clue about what is going on. And this is a double whammy too! They not only are throwing our money away but they're also destroying home values with this stuff! Smack smack! Time to call, write and email your congressman. And I keep hearing people say Barney Frank is the smartest man in congress? Well, I guess I could believe that when you compare him to the rest and see that his intellectual competition would be greater inside of a barn at your local friendly farm!
(12/29/08) GMAC Gets a bailout! Well this is going to be interesting. And annoying! Good ole General Motors has a financing division for cars and real estate. In order to get the federal bailout money it has to be a bank holding company. It never was because then it would have had to follow tighter regulations that might of kept it from getting into the mess its in. So now it applied for and received a government OK (granted with a bunch of stipulations) so that it would qualify for bailout money! To me this would be like letting a drug dealer go ahead and declare themselves a non profit after the IRS busts them for tax evasion! What is wrong with this picture? And I'm not sure how this gels with GMAC's real estate business. There are laws preventing "banks" from going into the real estate business (not sure if those are anti trust or which but they've been in place to prevent banks from getting to much power). How does this work? Boy I'll tell you if tax dollars go to support real estate companies I want my share! I'll keep looking into this. Also, the article mentions that GMAC had only been lending to buyers with credits scores north of 700 and will now lower that to 621! Well I'm all for getting more money out there but 621 is pretty low. The old standard used to be 640 and below that you were talking about good ole sub-prime! Wonder if they will drop the sub-prime title and call them "challenged" loans or such!
(12/22/08) Its great some people keep a sense of humor no matter what! I was driving around doing some pre-foreclosure work for lenders when I spotted this sign on a rural road in Rindge on a road that obviously still did not have power 8 days after the ice storm. Power lines and trees were all over the place still! The good news is that there were power line crews all over the place so hopefully our friends in Rindge can get their power back soon. Here's a pic of someone that is still keeping their perspective on things. Enjoy.
(12/21/0808)Mortgage rates fall to 37-year low!- You know what the problem with that is? People aren't taking advantage of it! Someone I was speaking with that's been in the business over 30 years told me today that statistically the most homes are sold during the PEAK of any market! Now I'm sure that's because of what Greenspan called "irrational exuberance" and also job confidence but doesn't that just sound plain WRONG to you? Why are people buying most homes at a markets peak? I think the other problem is that over the last 20 years peoples minds shifted on the whole home ownership subject. Homes went from a place you lived in and enjoyed, free from pesky landlords, liberated to be able to paint your living room purple and your man cave camouflage to become peoples BIG INVESTMENT and now that markets are going down people think its a bad time to buy. Well guess what? I'm buying now. Its not easy and its scary with income down and such but it just makes sense to buy at or near the bottom. And if you've read this blog before you know that I preach that NO ONE can see the bottom except in their rear view mirror! So.....when's the best time to buy a HOME? When you can afford it. A home is just that.. your home. Over time it will appreciate in value. As this gentleman also said to me in our conversation today "if you look at any 10 year period in real estate things have always appreciated" and that's what a home owner should look at. Its your humble abode first, and over time it will be a good investment. AND my other thing is that if you want to be INVESTING in real estate you should be looking at multi families, not singles (unless shorts or foreclosures) for the most part. That's a whole other subject and I'd be happy to chat with you or meet with you to discuss that whole subject if you want to go there. (from cnn.com/) Click here (this link will open a new window- if it does not work right click and select "Open in a new window")
(11/19/08)Are these guys morons?- I'm sure you've seen this on TV today but its still worth a rant! 3 CEO's, from separate, poorly run companies that have been making crap for products for years, fly on their corporate jets to DC to beg for free money to help keep their sinking ships afloat! Ya thunk it may even have crossed their minds that maybe they should fly United for this one? Or how about the 3 of them "plane pool"? And did you hear their answers to some of the questions congress asked them? These guys don't have a clue. They have no idea where they'd spend the 25 or so Billion, how long it will last or heaven forbid the concept how they might pay it back! Sorry United Auto workers but your cushy cash cow has died and all that's left is to grind it up and share what's left of the hamburger! They should let these bloated behemoths do what every other poorly run company does...go bankrupt, bring in new management and see if you can resurrect the sucker into something leaner and meaner. Yes yes I know its lots of jobs but there is NO, NADA, ZIP, plan even in concept to correct what's wrong with these companies. Its not the economy for the big 3! Its years of making stupid decisions (as in GM thinking the Hummer was going to be like the Jeep was after WW2) and a crappy product no one wants. Throwing money at these black holes just to "save" jobs is throwing good money into a sewer and hoping to get some change at the end. And you know what you'll really get at the end of this sewer...... So...what's that got to do with houses? Well, using some of that money to restructure home loans would be a good start. Do you know that right now there's nothing proactive you can do if you foresee a problem with your house payments but are not behind? Lets say it would make sense for you to only pay interest and escrows and not principal for the winter? Can't do unless you are at least 3 months behind. And then idiots like Countrywide say they will talk to you but then you'll hear "oh gee you have bad credit now". Its insane. When you talk to these people in the "work out dept's" you'll get all kinds of reasons why they can't help you. Its like they want to loose more money. If you have a story to tell please share it with me for this blog- no names (yours I mean- would love to have the name of the jerk lender you are dealing with.) Anyway, more on short sales later this week. (from cnn.com/) Click here (this link will open a new window- if it does not work right click and select "Open in a new window")
(9/24/08) WWW.gunna-find-you-an-agent.com Ok ok fictitious site but you've seen or heard them advertised. They claim they will find you "the best" or "most qualified" agent in your area for FREE! Ever wonder what's up with them or how they make money??? Well....I'm "gunna" tell ya:)
The problem with these sites is that they are at best disingenuous and at worst they outright lie and deci eve. Here's the deal. They make their money in two ways: First they may charge the agent they refer you to 30% or more of the commission as a referral fee. And that's fine. Finding customers cost money and paying for leads is a common practice in many sales jobs. Second, they are membership sites for real estate agents where the agent pays a monthly fee for an "exclusive" territory where the agent gets all the leads for that area or zip code(s). Now, the kicker is that I've never seen one of these sites have a minimum requirement for an agent joining. Often its new agents that are not established that buy these leads or join these sites. That's fine also but the problem I have with these sites is they usually state that they will find you the "best" agent when in fact the agent you wind up with is simply the one that is willing to pay them and has nothing to do with that agents skills or ethics. That agent may be a superstar or they may be a chump. My secondary concern these sites is that they can drive up the cost of hiring an agent for sellers. If an agent takes leads from one of these sites knowing they have to pay a 35% referral fee would they then find the need to charge a higher commission to make a living? I think so. It seems just wrong to me that these sites are potentially driving up the cost of listing your home while providing no real service to the customer by actually screening agents for them. So......my opinion is that you'd be much better served by doing the research on your own, check out an agents web site, meet and interview them, ask your friends etc about agents they know. Don't rely on these referral web sites that are probably not even hosted in your home state and really have no service to offer that you can't do better yourself with some search engine work. Or just hire me:)
(9/8/08)We're from the government and we're hear to help! Usually scary words to hear.... don't you agree? Well that's what was said when they took over Freddie and Fannie as I'm sure you've read and seen all over the news. It was interesting as I almost posted a link (just got too busy) to a story early last week that said things were looking up a bit for Freddie and Fannie and that they would probably not need to use any of the government's money to stay afloat. And then the bomb hits this weekend? What's up with that? Were these two companies really getting their crap together and the government was simply too far along in their take over plans to pull the plug on it so they just kicked in the doors and took over anyway? Or, was it a bogus press release from the CEO's of these two behemoths trying to fend off the government take over knowing they were going to be fired from their fat cat jobs? Perhaps we'll never know. Stay tuned for more comments in the next few days. (from money.cnn.com/ + Fortune Mag) Click here (this link will open a new window- if it does not work right click and select "Open in a new window")
(8/18/08)Is the appraisal business the next big thing?- I'm not sure this will gain traction but here's a story about what's wrong with the appraisal business and recent failed attempts to fix it. Short version on how this should work; buyer gets a property under agreement, the lender sends an appraiser to the property to determine the value to protect their interest ie they are not lending money on something that is not worth it. (This article mentions that the appraiser is chosen by the lender or real estate agent. I don't know about other states but in NH the real estate agent has nothing to do with picking the appraiser.) The article talks about one of the big problems is that the lender/mortgage broker gives the appraiser a "target" price to make the deal work. The problem this creates for the appraiser is that if they don't "bring it in" at the needed price they won't get future work from the mortgage broker. Now, have I seen fraud in this part of the business in my 12+ years selling real estate with the lenders and appraisers I have dealt with directly? No I haven't. Do I think the pressure is on an appraiser to walk the line of not committing fraud but still making things work so they get repeat business?? You betcha. Its a system that's broken. It's set up to fail. I often meet with home sellers and they magically pull out an appraisal that was done say in 2006/2007 for a refi and there is no way the property was worth that much. Was it a case of someone "making it work". I believe so. Is that fraud. I believe it is. The amazing thing is that a SIMPLE solution already exists and its done by a government agency already! For a VA loan the mortgage broker or loan officer does not get to pick the appraiser, the appraiser is simply the next in line on a list of approved appraisers the VA has. This takes the "pressure" off the appraiser to "make it work" and gives the lender a fair appraisal (influenced only my the appraisers competency). The only problem with going to a system like that is how that business model would work for an appraiser. It kind of goes against free enterprise. Also, how to you get a bad appraiser (ie incompetent) out of a system like that? So... the solution needs to be a mix of ideas. Perhaps the final lender that is actually underwriting the loan picks the appraiser and not someone such as a broker who is close to the deal. Well, lets see if this story blows up in the mainstream press in the coming months. (from msnbc.com) Click here (this link will open a new window- if it does not work right click and select "Open in a new window")
(8/7/08)June pending home sales tick up 5.3%- Ok first... thank you for the emails of encouragement urging me to keep writing this blog. I guess enough of you are not bored with this stuff to motivate me to have fun and keep writing! Thanks and emails of support or any comments always encouraged. Now...down to business! You've seen this headline all day right? On TV, in the newspapers etc! Didn't I tell you months ago they'd be saying this? Scroll down if you missed it. What the newspapers I read today and the short blurbs on the TV did not say is this was a May 2008 to June 2008 uptick but that June 2007 to June 2008 is down. As I said in previous posts June is ALWAYS a better month than May, whether its in a great market or a not great market! Its like the weather! June is always hotter than May around here! Its not news! Yes the National Association of Realtors (NAR) feeds this propaganda out there and the news organizations take it and run with it without asking any questions. This should really make you wonder about the accuracy and quality of other news reporting! Ever read Linda Ellerbee's book "And so it goes"? A fun read but also a scary one when you realize what total poop most news reporting is. Anyway, I'm feeling like Nostradamus these days with all my predictions coming true but at least this article from CNN ( and I'm no fan of CNN by any stretch) notes early on that the 2007/2008 numbers are down. That's more accuracy than the local newspapers and the major networks reported on this. Scary when CNN is a bastion of truth:)
OK OK I read this article again and I need to comment more! They note that the NAR forecasts that home prices will rise 4.4% in 2009!!!!! Based on what????? If you go back and look at history they never predict prices will fall! I'm a member of the NAR, mostly because I have no choice if I want to be in this business, but I do support and like many of their lobbying efforts on behalf of homeowners and agents, but this stuff is just nuts! Note to the home office- fire these voodoo economists and use my dues money to instead fund some local buyer education initiatives along with fair housing classes for landlords and agents! Note to my readers- I want prices to start rising again. I reallio trulio do! But wishing them to happen is not going to make it happen. Stay tuned for more straight talk. And btw- be sure to call me if you are looking to buy or sell. You'll get nothing but honest facts and the truth from me, like you get from my blog, so that you can make the best decisions for yourself. (from cnn.com/) Click here (this link will open a new window- if it does not work right click and select "Open in a new window")
(8/06/2008) I'm back and the Housing and Economy Recovery Act is here! OK after a month break from blogging (it got tiresome writing about things so I figured it was probably tiresome reading it- hence I took a break) I'm back at it. Stay tuned in the next few days for a break down of the good, the bad and the stupid on congresses latest attempt to "fix" the housing situation. As always whenever I hear "I'm from the government and I'm here to help" I tend to run away screaming so get ready for some more blunt assessment and predictions on this puppy! I'm researching, talking to lenders etc and will give you the un-sugar coated version of what to expect from all this. Later.
(6/27/08) Settlement results in free credit monitoring service- It appears that one of the big 3 of credit reporting agencies settled a class action lawsuit by offering to give anyone that asks free credit monitoring for 6 months. I have not tried it yet but will and let you know how it works. I'm suspicious that it will be just like the agreement the "Big 3" struck with the government a few years back to give everyone access to their credit reports for free once a year. Every try to get it? For "security" reasons they will ask you questions such as what was the account number for the Visa card you got in 1982! Stuff most people would not save or have or know. I'm convinced they do it to discourage you from actually getting your free report and I'm suspicious this "settlement" will have the same credit agency scam flavor as the free yearly reports do. Let me know if you have a bad experience with this. (from cnn.com/) Click here (this link will open a new window- if it does not work right click and select "Open in a new window")
(6/16/08) Mission Accomplished! Well not yet but if the Pres can say it I can too! What am I talking about? If you look at the number of homes for sale to the lower right you'll see that we've been peeling off inventory this year! Reducing the GLUT of houses for sale is one of the keys to seeing this market bottom and come back. Supply and demand yada yada yada. Seeing Inventory drop in the winter is normal and happens a lot but seeing it drop in summer, the peak listing time, is not normal. You can see we had 7800 homes on the market last September (Hillsboro and Rockingham Counties) and it decreased thru the winter (normal) but continues to decrease thru this summer. Today we are down to 4800. Why the drop? Some are due to private home owners deciding to take their home off the market and wait this out but I believe the bulk are foreclosures finally selling as banks drop the prices to get rid of them. I think some of those in the listing bubble were people that tried to late to get into the boom market we had. As I always say, you can only see the peak or valley in your rear view mirror! Also, while the news headlines (you know - the ones that I always rant about being inaccurate or misleading) said last month's foreclosure rate was up 44% nationwide compared to the year before we've had months where that number was well over 100% so the amount of listings is decreasing.
Now my favorite economic barometer is the listed to sold ratio. That number has been improving also with May being about 2:1, a big improvement over the 3:1 ratios we've been seeing. Boom times see a ratio of about 1.5:1 so we're looking at some encouraging numbers. I'm not crazy enough to declare an end of hostilities here but things are looking better numbers wise. Stay tuned!
(6/8/08)CNNMoney: Pending home sales jump - That's what the lead story says on the main page of CNN.com They go on to say things like "The number of homes under contract to be sold rose unexpectedly in April as buyers go bargain hunting..." and "The increase defied the consensus estimate of economists polled by Briefing.com, who had expected pending sales to fall by 1%". So you may think "oh goodie that market is getting better". Right? Wrongy dongy! Later in the article they point out that while the pending home sales increased from March to April 6.8% nationwide it was down 13.1% from April 2007 compared to April 2008. And... guess what? April, May and June are historically the months when most contracts get written regardless of the market conditions. Anyone with a half an ounce of experience in real estate would expect April to beat March, May to beat April and June to beat May year in and year out. And then they are not using raw data for the sales they are using some voodoo economics called a Pending Home Sales Index from the NAR so who knows what kind of "soft shoe" is uses to dance around the facts with that index. So expect more of the same news as they crunch May and then Junes sales data and I'll even bet, unless this market pulls a surprise turnaround, that you'll see equally misinformative news announcing June to July Pending sales DROP! With no caveat that they do every year, even in the boom years. The moral of the story? Watch the year to year comparisons. Oh and listen to me also! Scroll down to the story I did on 4/8/08 and there I said "....as you will start seeing stories in May that sales rose in April but they do every year." Damn I'm good sometimes:) (from cnn.com/) Click here (this link will open a new window- if it does not work right click and select "Open in a new window")
(6/2/08) Bush signed off- now what? Sorry for not writing for a while- just really burned out covering our fine government's stupidity on this mortgage business. So now there's a plan that involves lenders forgiving some debt. At this point I and other real estate agents have seen little to no forgiveness of debt by lenders. See articles below. I won't belabor the point but read mostly "convenience foreclosures" and understand how and why lenders do not want to encourage them and this plan WILL encourage them. I know I've been unable to really make up my mind on how to fix this mortgage mess but I think I'm coming over to the side that says 'its a problem caused by free markets, let free markets fix it.' After all, "we're from the government and we're here to help" has never solved anything. I'll update sales stats etc this week also.
(5/10/08) House OKs controversial housing plan!- Well this is probably a moot point as Bush says he's going to veto this sucker. Once again Barney Frank has come up with another plan that is not going to fly. I guess after reading my blog and realizing his last plan was a no go he went back to the drawing board and came up with this one. Short version- FHA will insure troubled loans IF the lender agrees to reduce the amount of the principal by 15% (that would be $45K on a $300K loan) AND IF the buyers are qualified to repay it. Now, typical FHA loans have rules regarding the condition of a home so not sure if they have even thought of that part, waived it or will realize later what that means with a big OPPS? Either way, this is another one that will be a major flop if it ever passes. Lenders are NOT going to gleefully reduce loans by 15%! I've tried several times this year on a short sale to get them to forgive smaller amounts and they won't even talk to you. Barney and company just do not understand how the process works. I won't even get into whether or not this is a bail out for the irresponsible (Its not going to help someone that lost their job for instance as they will not qualify to repay the new loan and hence won't get it!) Barney Give me a call and I'll help you put something together that will work! (from cnn.com/) Click here (this link will open a new window- if it does not work right click and select "Open in a new window")
(5/1/08) Foreclosure hysteria! OK time to rant and vent a bit- but in my usual informative manner:) The latest hype in the news this week screams "1 out of 194 homes in foreclosure!" My oh my! If you look at the math that's .5%! Now in an ideal world we'd have no foreclosures and beer and cable TV would be free too, but its not ideal, is it? Half a percent is not a big number no matter how you look at it. Yes yes I know its up 140% over last year etc etc but remember, particularly in our area foreclosures have typically been low. Its just like these medical reports that say if you feed 2 tons of X into a lab rat its chances of getting cancer increase 3 times and you think OMG we're all going to die! But what you don't see is the starting point for the chances of that rat getting cancer to begin with was .00002% and after feeding it X its now .00006%! Basically if you triple nothing its still nothing! Next, please consider this. A percentage of these foreclosures are what I call "convenience foreclosures". Some people who are quite capable of continuing to pay the debt they agreed to pay are walking away from their homes and their responsibility because its convenient for them. Whether its because they "Choose" to move and can't sell their home for what they paid for it or they really were speculators its a big problem no one is talking about yet. There was a couple on 60 Minutes a month or so ago that was totally capable of paying their mortgage but they choose not to and let foreclosure happen because they said "its dumb to make payments on a house that's losing value!" Ummm how about that legal document you signed committing to repaying your mortgage? It didn't have a clause in there allowing you to walk away if the market goes down! I would estimate that somewhere between 25-50% of foreclosures are exactly this scenario. I know it not politically correct and may sound like a lack of compassion but I can guarantee you that if you could interview everyone that was foreclosed on you would find a large number of people who did not really try as you would think they should to save their home. Things like going out and getting a second job? I know people that have and are doing that to save their homes. Many don't. Now... that said there are some real sad and tragic cases of people losing their homes. I know that. Its a rotten part of life that sometimes bad things happen to good people. I'm not ranting about them...its the other half.
So...I never believe in complaining without offering a solution. Here's mine but this will go about as far as a feather hit with a baseball bat. Still...its an idea. The problem now for these "convenience foreclosure" people is that the foreclosure eliminates the debt. These people are making choices for their own benefit that cost the banks and everyone money. They cost you and me money because their actions are driving house prices down in some markets. I'd say we change the foreclosure law to still work the way it does IF you meet some criteria for proving that you cannot really afford to make the payments. If you are fat and happy and driving a Lexus and have $200K in the bank then you should still be liable for any loses the lenders incur with foreclosing and selling your house. That would stop these "convenience foreclosures" in their tracks and rightly so and then the news headlines would read "FORECLOSURES DROP 50%".
(4/19/08)Home owners Losing Equity Lines!- Here's an interesting new twist to this housing dilemma. You're fat and happy and sitting comfortably in your home, peacefully riding out this market with the peace of mind knowledge that if you had to you could tap into the $100K equity credit line you smartly opened but did not use previously. Well...now with falling values some lenders are cancelling credit lines out of concern that the properties can no longer cover the equity line. Interesting eh? So.....what do you do? You could sit and hope they don't do that to you or you could pull some of the money out now before they take it away. Of course, it doesn't make any sense to pull it out and pay interest on it if you have no plans except to let it sit in a savings account. Still, if you do not have much of a cash reserve for emergencies think about taking some of that money out and parking it in a CD. That way the interest will help offset the interest you are paying for that money. Or.....there are some great bank owned deals out there that are starting to show up. If you've got a taste for risk perhaps its time to jump into this market with your money and make some more. Have you ever said, or heard your parents say, after a down market turns around, "geez I wish I had jumped in and bought something!" Just a thought! (from washingtonpost.com/) Click here (this link will open a new window- if it does not work right click and select "Open in a new window")
(4/8/08) Pending home sales hit new nadirHere's a story from AP that's been all over the newspapers. So my first thought was "hmmmm I can't remember what a nadir is". So, courtesy of dictionary.com, it is "the lowest point; point of greatest adversity or despair." OK then if you read this article and it states that many think we have not hit bottom yet! OK so its not a nadir then is it? What you will read in other reports on this story is that it is an index that measures pending home sales and that it is at its lowest point since they began tracking this. Wow sounds nasty right? Well thankfully what this article does, but many have not, is point out that this index only started in 2001 when the market was ramping up very nicely. So OF COURSE February, the worse month of the year for sales any year, would be the lowest since we are in a downturn! There was another series of articles a few weeks ago proclaiming sales fell from January to February like that is new news! Guess what? They fall every January to February and month to month is not an indicator of anything as you will start seeing stories in May that sales rose in April but they do every year. The real numbers to watch are year to year comparisons. P
(4/5/08)What's a short sale? -You may have seen a listing saying "Subject to short sale approval" or "Subject to 3rd party approval" etc... This usually indicates a scenario where the asking price is not enough to pay off the seller's loan or loans. They are looking to get the best offer they can and then submit it to the lender and see if the lender will "forgive" the amount of debt not covered by the offer. Why would a lender do this? In general, it can easily costs a lender $30-$50K to foreclose and re-sell a property. Between attorneys fees, commissions, winterizing a home, dealing with potential damage and/or vandalism, the costs can add up quickly. So...in some cases it would make sense for a lender to take a $20K loss up front instead of a larger one later. But, the process is not easy and takes time.
Many buyers and agents do not understand the process and they get frustrated with the amount of time it takes and a lack of communication from the lender. First, the lenders or the 3rd party companies they hire to handle the loan are swamped with properties to deal with. Prompt and detailed attention is NOT to be expected. Second, the offer needs to be "Clean", concise and easy to read and understand. If you put a clause such as "subject to my uncle Billy Bob looking at it" its going to get put aside.
What the lender is going to do before they accept, reject or counter your offer? Keep in mind this is a short sale, not a property that has already been foreclosed (which is a whole different set of issues I'll deal with in another article here soon.) The offer for the short sale is submitted. First, the lender will order what is called a BPO (which is a Broker Price Opinion from a real estate agent) for a rough idea on the homes value. Then they will order an appraisal to get the "actual market value". This can take weeks. Now if there is a first and a second mortgage and they are not both with the same lender then you have a whole other set of communications problems and issues. While a first mortgage takes precedence in a foreclosure, for a short sale the 2nd mortgage holder needs to "sign off" on the agreement for a closing to take place (i.e forgive debt). As an additional complication, there would be a mortgage insurance company that would also be involved. The mortgage insurance is there to protect the lender in case of a foreclosure and there in not enough money to pay off the loans. In a short sale the lender will basically say to the mortgage insurance company "hey split this loss with us otherwise its going to be foreclosed and you'll be covering the whole thing". More or less.
You can see all the different players involved and how this can take months to resolve. So if an offer comes in the day before a foreclosure you would think the lender would postpone the auction and review the offer. Some do and some don't. I've had offers that would cover all the loans ignored that came in the day before the closing. That's a generalization of the process but still it gives a glimpse into the process and why its not as easy as many think.
(4/3/08)What's going on? - OK welcome back friends. My back is all healed, the snow is melting and its time to BLOG again! How's the market? Not bad over all and great of you are a buyer. For buyers, interest rates are staying low and both individual sellers and "bank owned" properties are seeing prices not necessarily plummet but there are some great buys out there. If you look at the stats for the number of homes on the market we're way up compared to this time last year so there's still a glut of properties. Have we hit bottom? Oh.... I don't know. Historically, looking at the data and the timeline, we should be about at bottom. Those of you that have been following this blog remember my favorite saying - "You can only see the bottom of the market in your rear view mirror." I think at this point prices are going to fix the housing market by themselves. The kicker is the economy. If the economy goes south, fuel prices continue to rise and so on then that will hamper our recovery. Watch for more articles, links and data to come.
(4/3/08)Troubleshoot your turf!- Well good weather must be around the corner. Nothing helps your curb appeal like a green lawn! Here's some tips. (from cnn.com/) Click here (this link will open a new window- if it does not work right click and select "Open in a new window")
(4/3/08)Democrats seek quick strike vs. foreclosure!- Are you as frustrated as I am about the lack of action and the stupid plans congress keeps floating out there? You have the "let them eat cake" approach and then you have the "give them filet mignon" approach! C'mon, these people we elect are supposed to be our best thinkers. Can't they come up with something better than the unworkable useless plans they've come up with so far? Here's some news on that whole subject in case you feel you need a dose of stupidity! (from cnn.com/) Click here (this link will open a new window- if it does not work right click and select "Open in a new window")
(4/3/08)What's coming up here?? - On Saturday I'll let you know about how they handle foreclosures with regards to evictions. There's a lot being done wrong here and a little of this has hit the press but I'll give you the full story and you can watch for it to the mainstream media in the future. Also, every heard of an FHA 203K loan? These are great loan programs that loan you money to buy a distressed property AND the money to fix it up! I'll update all the sales charts this coming weekend also. Welcome back friends.
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Hosted by John R. Fisher, Prudential Verani-Foster Realtors. 633 Elm St, Milford NH 03055 (603) 674-4675 (603) 459-0530
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