After foreclosure or short sale, you will want to repair your credit.

After financial problems, your credit report reflects late payments, missed payments, and repossessions, as well as foreclosure, short sales, and bankruptcies. Also, it reflects the amount of debt you owe. Reviewing your credit report is the first place to start.

Analyze the past. Your credit report will give you insight as to how potential lenders might regard your financial stability, but you should go deeper. What caused your financial troubles? Will the foreclosure relieve your problems or do you need to go further, perhaps even declaring bankruptcy?

Budget. Regardless of the past, now is the time to develop a budget based on your current income. If you can’t meet your budget without using credit cards, you need to do more trimming. Ideally, you will be able to live frugally enough to pay off debt, so your debt to income ratio is lower.

Start paying your bills on time. It takes a while to overcome a late payment or a pattern of them on your report, but if you start paying on time, you will reestablish yourself. If you later want to buy a home again, lenders will be looking to see your payment patterns after your foreclosure or short sale.

Get help if you need it. You should stay away from most credit repair companies, but a credit counselor can help you at low or no cost. The housing counselor who worked with you during your foreclosure might be able to help you or refer you.

Secured credit cards. Owning a credit card for emergencies is a good idea, but you may not be able to get one unless you opt for a secured card. You will prepay a certain of money that becomes your credit line. The terms vary between banks, so it pays to shop around.

Give it time. Many delinquencies, foreclosures, short sales, and bankruptcies remain on your record for 10 years. If you start paying on time, you may be able to qualify for a mortgage or additional credit sooner, but the report tells the long term story. If heading toward financial trouble, many times selling your house to a third party company that buys houses will stop the money drain and allow you to reestablish yourself before you go into foreclosure or your problems deepen.

Question for Comments:

How do you think credit repair companies can help you?

Are you ready to sell a home fast? Call us today at 1-888-835-4758 or have your client contact us to get an offer in hours from Express Homebuyers.

If you are you are having financial problems that lead to foreclosure or short sale, your credit report will tell the story long after you have moved on. What is the impact? Is there a difference in the impact of foreclosure vs. a short sale when you sell your home?

Recently, FICO, the company that produces the credit score used by many lenders to evaluate creditworthiness, offered some surprising answers to these questions – and added some new insights as well.

Bad news for high scorers

First, FICO sees little difference between a foreclosure and short sale. In either case, the lender received less than the balance of the loan, so the defaulting homeowner might lose from 85 to 160 points from his credit score. Why the range? The steepness of the fall depends on what the score was to start out. High scores lost more points than ones that started out low. A high 780 score would lose the 160 points, while a mid-range score of 720 would lose 130-150 points, and the low score of 680 would lose “only” 85-105 points.

The same pattern of dinging high credit scores more heavily than low ones prevails with late payments too. When 30 days late, a high score might lose 90-110 points, plus an extra 20 if they were 90 days late. Low scorers are zapped 60-80 points whether they were late by 30 days or 90.

Here’s the kicker. A borrower with a high score will not recover from a late payment for three years in comparison to only nine months for a someone with a lower credit score.

This information seems at odds with the advice of most housing counselors to pursue a short sale rather than letting the house go into foreclosure. FICO says that someone who underwent a short sale would be better off only if the lender did not report the shortfall – a difference of only 35 points.

So, why pursue a short sale instead of a foreclosure?

When you go to sell a home, a short sale offers more control over the process. They may feel depressed that they have to give up the house, but they have more of a sense of closure on a bad situation. They can plan their future more easily than with a foreclosure.

When they go to buy another home, they should be able to do so in 24 months at a good interest rate. This assumes that they have kept their payments current after the short sale.

Though most analysts claim that either default impacts the report the same, there is a difference by state as to the impact. Borrowers from some states have reported hits up to 300 points from foreclosures and 100 points from short sales.

With a short sale, the homeowner remains with the property until closing, just as in a normal sale. As a result, the home is not left vacant for long periods of time, which keeps the property values intact and reduces neighborhood vacancy rates. The lender does have to maintain the property or see the value further lessened by vandalism and theft.

Banks benefit too

The lender accepts less than loan value with a short sale, but is spared the extra legal costs of pursuing a foreclosure in court. According the Joint Economic Committee of Congress, the average foreclosure costs $77,935 while preventing a foreclosure runs $3,300; the figures for the cost of a short sale are not given, but the major costs include processing and loss on the loan, without the court costs and property maintenance.

Though both short sale and foreclosures have roughly the same impact on credit scores, a short sale has many advantages both to the seller and the lender when selling a home. Since short sales are a remedy that costs lenders less than foreclosure, some lenders may look more kindly on short sales. As short sale is considered by some to be the best way to help our country get past the housing crisis; a time may come when this philosophy might be reflected in the scores themselves.

Have you experienced a short sale or foreclosure? If so, what advice can you offer based upon your experience?
__________________________________________________________________________
Are you ready to sell your home fast? Call us today at 1-888-835-4758 or contact us to sell a home in hours from Express Homebuyers.

President Obama promised that nearly 4 million homeowners would be helped through modification, but the initial efforts went slowly as lenders moved slowly.  In July, the President and his staff called lender representatives to Washington and told them to pick up the pace.  The most recent report released December 10 indicated that the program is not only on target but ahead of schedule in terms of people who are at some point in the process.

• 728,000 modifications have been made – 25,318 of them in the Washington, DC metro area
• Borrowers with modified loans are saving an average of $550 per month
• Only 31,382 borrowers have moved from the trial phase of the program to the permanent phase
• So far, most borrowers are keeping up with their payments

The Administration met with lenders and loans servicers in Washington this week to ascertain if they are doing all they can to make the trial conversions permanent.  Meanwhile, the push is on for people in their trial period to sign the paperwork to make the modification permanent.

As noted by Chief of Treasury’s Homeownership Preservation Office (HPO) Phyllis Caldwell, the report proves that “struggling homeowners across the country continue to receive immediate relief in the form of reduced monthly payments and a second chance to stay in their homes.”

These facts contradict a study by a watchdog group that came out the same day as the government report.  The study claims only 10,000 permanent modifications have been completed and echoes Treasury department fears that 40% of people with modified home loans will re-default within 5 years.

For many homeowners, loan modification is a solution that can work long term if the reduction is substantial enough and if the other expenses associated with the home fit within the budget.  For others, who have a home too pricey for them, other debt, or a faltering job, the process may only prolong the agony before they either lose the home or make the decision to move on.

If you are debating whether you should modify your loan or go another route, Express Homebuyers offers an alternative.  We will buy your home for cash and guarantee completion of the process within a couple weeks.  We tell you up front what we will pay; if you agree, you are on the way to a quick resolution.  We even offer you a $2,500 upfront advance so you can plan your fresh start.  Call us at 1-877-804-5252 or check out our Express Homebuyers website for more details.

Now! Common wisdom in a government program

On November 5, the FHA announced the Deed for Lease (D4L) program, which would allow qualifying owners on the brink of foreclosure to lease the property for a year or more after turning in the deed.  The program might even be available to tenants.  To qualify, the homeowner must be unable to have his loan modified and must be able to pay market value rent of no more than 31% of the household income.  Further, he must keep the property in good condition, have rental insurance if he has pets, and must live in the home as a primary residence.

A benefit for troubled homeowners

For many, it will reduce their payments to 31% of their income.  If they had other mortgages on the property, they would be released from those. The tradeoff is that they are no longer homeowners, but that financial position will disappear with less damage to the person’s credit report and less family and neighborhood disruption.  Although the program may offer only temporary relief–the lease is initially for one year–that time allows the former homeowner to get his finances back in order and perhaps plan for the future without the stress of foreclosure looming. (Read more facts about Deed for Lease here.)

For the lender, D4L eliminates many of the costs of foreclosure, provides rental income, and preserves the property’s condition.  Banks may not want to be landlords any more than they want foreclosed properties, but D4L is a reasonable solution that will pay off for them if housing prices rebound and lenders are able to sell the homes for more than the original price.

Facing possible foreclosure?

Is Deed for Lease a good idea for you?  If you want to stay in your home and can afford the new payment, D4L might be ideal.  However if you are unemployed or are living in a home too expensive for you, you will probably fail the income test.

Express Homebuyers offers another solution that might work even better for you.  We buy houses for cash, clear the liens, and wrap up the transaction within a couple weeks.  We will even provide you with a cash advance to help you get settled in a new place.

Our motto is We Sell Your Home Fast. You can put this motto into action today by contacting Express Homebuyers at 1-877-804-5252.  Want more information on the process before you make the call? Read this list of frequently asked questions to prepare you to make the decision that gives you a fresh start.

To prevent these types of losses, many banks throughout the country have started to offer owners or even tenants “cash for keys,” a cash payment in exchange for vacating the property within a certain number of days and leaving it in good condition.  Typically, the bank will offer $500 or more on the condition that the terms are met.  The idea is that the money will to be used for expenses such as security deposits, movers, rental trucks, utility deposits, and temporary living expenses.  This money, though hardly adequate to resettle a displaced family, at least offers some help and incentive to move out and move on without leaving the house in shambles.

Cash for keys was an unpublicized bank program for many years, available only to those who asked.  Now, banks are more forthright about offering it to people.  Banks have found this is cost-effective, compared to eviction court fees or repair costs.  Though cash for keys is intended to be a win-win proposition, the reaction of recipients is mixed.  Glad to get something, many people feel that the small amount offered is hardly enough to help them transition to a new home, much less dull their pain.  Without threatening, owner or tenants can certainly negotiate for a more helpful amount.

Recently, in the latest revision of the Making Home Affordable program, the Treasury Department offers $1,500 cash to homeowners to move on and $1,000 to loan servicers if they forgive mortgage debt.  This is basically a cash for keys approach to a problem, which should help homeowners and help banks to regain property is salable condition.

There is a simpler way to get help to move on without foreclosure.  Express Homebuyers will buy your home on the spot and offer you a cash advance of $2,500 to aid your moving and resettlement.  Rather than dragging out your situation, we will also get your deal done within two weeks through our simple five-step process.

Get closure, not foreclosure!  Sell your house fast. For Cash. Contact Express Homebuyers today at 1-877-804-5252 to get the ball rolling. We buy houses for cash, we’re Better Business Bureau accredited, and we’ve been doing it right since 2003.

Your personal feelings… Foreclosure might be a business decision for your lender, but for you and your family, leaving your home usually means leaving your neighborhood and your lifestyle.  Adults tend to feel depressed, disappointed, and angry.  For kids, this often means being uprooted from school mid-year and having to make friends and catch up in a new academic environment.  If the financial strains leading up to foreclosure have broken up the marriage, both children and adults have an extra layer of hurt and disappointment to deal with.

Your new residence… Maybe your game plan is to move back home with mom and dad after you lose a home, but if you want to rent somewhere, you’ll need to find a place to live where the landlord is sympathetic to your situation.  If you are jobless, this poses an obvious impediment.  Assuming you have enough income to pay the rent, you may have to come up with a larger-than-normal deposit to put the landlord’s concerns to rest.  Getting the deposit together, often a challenge for people anyway, is more difficult when you are cash strapped after a foreclosure.

Credit score implications… You are probably aware that your credit score will take a hit with foreclosure on your record, but be forewarned that other creditors may raise you rates, even if you are up to date with them.  Many people tend to be behind in many accounts, especially if they have let other things go in an attempt to cover the mortgage.  The resulting low credit score may make it hard to buy a car or get reasonable credit down the line.

Future home buying… Buying a home in the future will be more difficult with a foreclosure on your record.  Even if you have an otherwise good credit record, you will probably have to wait five years to be eligible for a Fannie Mae backed loan or three years for an FHA backed one. In either case, you might be able to speed things up if you can prove that there were extenuating circumstances that lead to the foreclosure.  You will still have to prove that you have been on time with things since the foreclosure.

Job consequences… These days, many employers get credit checks on new employees. If you are applying for position where you will be handling money, you might be turned down for the job based on your credit history.  Even for a sales job, the employer might think you’ll be under too much pressure.  You should address the subject in an interview to negate employer concerns. There are laws that limit the types of checks employers can do, but if don’t get the job after you’ve had a foreclosure, it’s hard to prove that the credit report was the reason you didn’t get it.

You may still owe… Once your home has been foreclosed on (or you’ve walked away) the lender may bill you for taxes on the amount they couldn’t recover from the sale, while the IRS may hold you responsible for debt on the property that was forgiven.  Recent laws may give you some relief but make sure to check with a tax adviser to gauge your liability.

When foreclosure looms, the best bet is to assess the situation and determine how to gain control of it.  For some people, this may mean talking to the lender or a financial counselor to negotiate a loan modification. For others, it may mean a short sale, where leaving the property will be more on your terms. There is another way:  you can sell your home outright for cash to a reputable firm.

Express Homebuyers, which has operated in the DC area since 2003, can make you an offer, give you an advance so you can find a new home, and wrap up the sale within a couple weeks. To explore this exciting option, which can limit the impact of financial turmoil, call 1-(877) 907-3232 or email info@expresshomebuyers.com.  We can answer your questions about a way to leave your troubled financial past behind you and move on to a better life.

Homeowners with the ability to pay the mortgage they agreed to when they got the loan are one intended audience for the Making Home Affordable plan set in place by President Obama in February, 2009.  Borrowers with Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac-backed loans held by participating lenders can qualify for loan modifications that hold payments to 31% of incomes.

How the President’s Plan Works

For someone whose payment has risen to 45% of their income, the lender must absorb the loss to reduce the payment to 38%; the government will pay the difference between 38% and 31%. To reach this goal, the interest rate can be reduced to as low as 2% for five years.  Participants are encouraged to work with HUD counselors to assess their housing situation.  The program is free.

Lenders receive incentives when they successfully complete a loan modification, but lenders are so understaffed in their departments that they are slow to respond to eligible homeowners.  At this point 360,165 trial modifications have been started and 571,354  offers made; this represents about 12% of the 3-4 million eligible homeowners expected to be helped. In July, President Obama chided the lenders and asked them to increase hiring to assure that at least 500,000 trial modification are in place by November, 2009.

The original plan was limited to mortgages that were 105% of the value of the home; but this was increased to 125% in July.   In hard hit areas of the country like Nevada, California, and Florida, where percentages of “underwater” mortgages are high, many are disqualified from participating in the program. Critics allege that, because the program does not mandate principle reduction and because lenders have been slow to respond, the program will fall short of its goal of how many people it will help.  The President admonished lenders and loan servicers to increase hiring to assure that 500,000 modifications are in progress by November, 2009.

Loan Modification Won’t Work for Some

Unfortunately, during the housing boom, some homeowners bought homes that are too expensive for them, perhaps by overstating their incomes.  Lured by easy credit terms during the housing boom, these homeowners now find themselves in homes too expensive to heat, maintain, and insure, as well as pay for.  Others have  lost their jobs in this period of high unemployment and may not be able to predict when they will be working again or if their salaries will remain the same.

A loan modification, especially one that doesn’t significantly reduce the payment, can only prolong the agony of foreclosure in these cases.   For people in this condition, as well as for people who don’t want to keep the home, there are better alternatives than loan modification to prevent foreclosure.

Express Home Buyers offers one solution to people who aren’t candidates for loan modification but feel trapped with a high mortgage.  We will buy your home fast – most sales close within two weeks of your accepting our offer.  Since we buy the home directly from you, you do not have to list your home with a real estate agent or deal with banks or lawyer to negotiate a settlement for you.  We even offer you a $2,500 cash advance to help you move to new housing.

We buy homes in Baltimore and Southern Maryland; the Metro DC area; and Hampton Roads, Richmond, and Northern Virginia. Learn more about “The Express Homebuyers Advantage” and make the call to sell your home quick!

1. Modifying the length of the loan or the interest rate
2. Waiving penalties and fees
3. Deferring payments to the end of the loan and making it longer
4. Applying past due amounts to the loan balance and slightly increasing each monthly payment
5. Holding a fixed rate on a loan ready to adjust
6. lengthening an introductory payment or interest rate or
7. granting temporary forbearance to stop the payments.

Presenting Your Request to the Lender

Not being social service agencies, banks do not widely advertise this “softer” side. To bring it out and allow a workout, you need to make a good case for yourself: make the lender confident that this will stop further loss. Just as is true with all credit issues, contact your lender at the first sign of trouble.  Your steps might include:

• Explain why you are in trouble and why you think the problem is temporary. If your interest rate changed and increased your payment, you need to show evidence you paid on time before change.  If your problems were caused by job loss, illness, or family circumstances, you need to show that it is likely you will have a job soon or that the crisis has passed.
• Show the bank that you have been trying to work things out on your own, through job hunting, part time jobs, or by reducing your living expenses.
• Present a specific proposal to the bank, with alternatives, verbally and in writing. A non-profit housing counselor, a real estate attorney, CPA, or other qualified source may be able to offer you some suggestions about what to propose. A typical request might suggest lengthening the loan, making it fixed, not adjustable, and lowering the interest rate.  If your proposal will lower your payment by $500 per month, you need to show how this will help you catch up and be on time in the future. A good faith payment might sweeten the pot if you are way behind.

Good preparation will increase the chance that the lender will accept your proposal.  Make sure to discuss with the lender representative how the new agreement will affect your credit record.  Your goal is to have your new payments reported to the credit bureau as “Pays as agreed,” but make sure you understand the credit ramifications before you finalize the terms.

If you decide you would prefer to sell your home, check out  Express Homebuyers.  We promise to buy your house fast or we’ll guarantee to help you sell your house fast and help you make a fresh start.

Whether or not you’re planning to sell your house any time soon, it never hurts to get things in order.  Even the tidiest homeowners are amazed by how quickly houses can become inundated by the clutter and items they accumulate.
Here are some easy tips toward consistently maintaining order and balance in your home, and ensuring that come sale time you don’t find yourself waging the war against disorder for the first time.

You Need Discipline and a Game Plan

• Instead of dabbling and making gradual improvements here and there throughout the home, focus your efforts on one room at a time.  Don’t move onto another room until the task at hand has been thoroughly completed.
• Force yourself to stay disciplined, and adopt the “in and out” approach.  For every new item you add to a room, remove an older one.
• If you have kids, make the cleaning process fun for them (yes, it is possible).  Whether it’s by giving them incentives to keep their rooms tidy and their personal belongings out of public spaces, or showing them how rewarding the result can be give them a tangible reason(reward, privilege, bribe)  to observe these rules even when they haven’t been reminded to.
• Have a vision of what the room SHOULD look like before you tackle it.
• Use hangers to sort the clothes you wear the most from the ones you break out only on special occasions.  Needless to say, garments that are out of season should be kept separately (a sealed, moth-proof rack for your hangers can be a crucial investment for your basement/attic space).
• When considering whether or not to retire an item, force yourself to decide whether you really, REALLY need it.  If you have a hard time deciding, you know what to do.
• Treat your kitchen as a sacred area: the real estate that includes your stove, sink, refrigerator and countertops should be occupied by useful items only.

When it comes time to sell your house fast, you will be more than rewarded for the work you have done on the front end. Of course, if you do decide to sell your house in the Maryland, Washington DC or Virginia area, give us a call. We can help.

What’s a Short Sale?

Let’s assume you understand the basics of the concept, and are familiar with the broad strokes: basically, a short sale is what occurs when a lender agrees to accept less than the amount owed against a home because there is no longer enough equity to sell and pay all costs of sale.  Put simply, if your payments are in arrears and it’s looking more and more like the lender won’t be able to recoup the full cost of the home, a short sale may be their best way of their getting something rather than nothing.

It Isn’t Perfect, But…

There’s no question that a short sale is far from an ideal outcome for anyone who owns a home.  If you find yourself in dire straits with either foreclosure or a short sale looming as your only two options, which do you choose?  Consider which does more damage to your credit?  Opinions on this topic vary, but the bottom line is, they both do a lot of harm.  Foreclosure typically knocks between 200 and 300 points off your score, while short sales have been known to trim your credit rating by anywhere from 100 to 300 points.  Bottom line: your credit will suffer either way, although you have a slightly better chance of losing less money and credit rating if you work with a real estate agent and negotiate a short sale.

It’s a Way to Protect Your Credit Rating.

We understand how hard it is for anyone to be facing these possibilities; if you’d like to know more about this process or have any other real estate questions answered, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. Express Realty Services has a fully-staffed short sale department; we can help you work through every facet of your short-sale negotiation.

Important Steps to Avoid Foreclosure at All Costs

Let’s start by talking over a few ways to avoid having this happen to you.  We already wrote a bit about short sales, and their effect on your rating. Here are some other ways you can try to keep the possibility of foreclosure from becoming a reality.  The first and most basic is to keep in touch with your lender.  No one likes hearing bad news, and it can be easier to let unopened bills and late notices pile up in your trash than deal with the reality of your situation.  If you find yourself falling behind on your payments, contact your lender and discuss the possibility of modifying your loan (and negotiating one with a lower interest rate, for example).  Occasionally, you can ask for forbearance, a period during which the lender agrees to let you temporarily stop making payments until you have your situation sorted out.
Suppose you decide instead to move, most likely into a more affordable home or a rented apartment.  In the event that the amount of your mortgage exceeds the value of the house, consider a short sale.  Sometimes, you can simply turn your home over to the lender and cancel your remaining debt (a process called a “deed in lieu of foreclosure”), but like all of your other options if you’re at this critical stage, think it over carefully.

Whatever You Do, Act Now—Your Situation Won’t Fix Itself

Whatever your situation or plan for the future, we wish you the best of luck, and are always here to take any and all questions you may have.

The Best Endorsements Come From Our Partners

Given how the business works, it’s always gratifying to get the approval of our peers, especially that of real estate professionals as highly regarded as Daryl Laster of the DC-based Lance Horsley Team.  A Chicago native with an MBA in Finance and Entrepreneurial Studies from the University of Illinois, Mr. Laster made his name in the restaurant industry before establishing himself in real estate.   A licensed realtor in the DC, MD and VA areas and an integral part of a company acknowledged by many as DC’s Loft Specialists, he had the following to say about his dealings with our firm:

A Peer Review

“Express Home Buyers is an absolute dream to work with.  Their renovations are truly impressive.  Renovations include high quality, hi-end materials and workmanship.  In my opinion, the project was a true renovation in that plumbing, electrical and structural repairs are done when needed, not lipstick on a sow as I often see.”
“Marc [Hershkowitz], as a listing agent for EHB, was equally delightful to work with.  My buyer has custom requests and Marc facilitated her requested with relative ease.  And of course, the buyer agent bonus was like whip cream & a cherry on my sundae.  Thanks again Marc for all!”

Thanks Mr. Laster

We are extremely grateful for all positive feedback and endorsements we receive, especially when they come from a realtor as accomplished as Mr. Laster.
If you’d like to understand why we enjoy excellent relationships with many of our industry peers, visit our website and browse the homes we have available.  We promise to provide you with the same high-level of service and professionalism that Mr. Laster refers to above!

Some more numbers, and a bold claim

On the sales side of our operation, we continue to unload homes 3 times faster than the market average. Want some real numbers?  The last 3 homes we sold lasted 27, 7 and 0 days on the market, respectively (that “0” is not a typo; we actually sold the home before it even made it to listing). As the country’s largest home buying firm and the 8th best selling team in the Keller Williams organization nationwide, we are your go-to source for the best real estate deals in the DC Metro area, a region that includes Maryland and Northern Virginia. Because we work closely with the FDIC, Fannie Mae, Countrywide, Wells Fargo, Indy Mac and many others, we ensure that our level of access to foreclosed homes and REO’s is second to none. You can view our up-to-date inventory at www.ExpressHomebuyers.com/email and www.ExpressRs.com. We’ve said it before in this blog, but here it is again: now is the best time to buy a home in the next 30 years.  If you’d like to hear more about why we this, or if you’re interested in either seeing the homes we have available or selling one of your own, don’t hesitate to reach out to us.

The best advice we can give you here is to get in early, and put an offer down before the house you’re eying disappears or sits long enough to swell in price.  Here’s what we mean:

If you’ve done some research on our company, you may know that we tend to sell houses pretty quickly: this is due to our commitment to pricing houses reasonably, and the quality of the renovations we perform.  Below is the graphic we included in the recent post explaining homebuyer survey results:

As you can see, our houses sit on the market for considerably less time than the regional average.  What this chart does not show you, however, is that over 50% of the homes we move are actually sold before they’re ever listed.  How is this possible?  Easy; because we are first and foremost a homebuying operation, we’ve already bought the houses in question.

Although we hesitate to list the house before the renovation process has been completed, as the homeowner we have the luxury of arranging a showing anytime you want; in fact, people familiar with the quality of our work have even bought houses from us BEFORE the renovation process was complete, knowing the finished product would be of the same high caliber as every other home we move.  The buyers who walk away with our houses before they hit the market are those who get in touch as soon as they hear of our latest purchase; they’re the ones who keep in touch by phone, keep tabs on our website, and monitor the houses we’re working on at:

www.expresshomebuyers.com/email/greensheet.xls.

This is a great opportunity to gain valuable insight into the process of purchasing your first home.

May 16, 2009 10:00AM to Noon
Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church
201 Fourth Street SE Washington DC
Corner of 4th and Independence Ave. SE.

Located close to the Eastern Market or Capitol South metro stations. Please note that parking for the event is extremely limited.

This seminar will:
1. Suggest ways to improve your credit rating. Credit scores can be raised by as much as 100 points through our simple, legal, and no-hidden-costs method.
2. Explain how you can secure up to $18,000 in down payment assistance. No strings attached, and available to all qualified first-time home buyers. This is grant funding you won’t ever have to pay back if you occupy your home for a certain length of time.
3. Teach you to identify and target the best DC-area properties for your budget. Learn simple tricks and techniques to get the most value for your money.
4. Remove the mystery from the closing process. Learn to understand concepts such as deeds, closing costs, title and ownership.

This Home Buying seminar is unique in that you can pre-qualify, apply and view new home opportunities right on the spot. You won’t want to miss out!

Hosted by Express Realty Services – www.ExpressRS.com.
Featured Speakers:      Marc Hershkowitz – Realtor and Host
Kristine O’Neill – Senior Loan Officer, Virginia Heritage Bank Mortgage
Mark Schrader – Principal, Millennium Title
Steve Conover – Credit Guru, MyCreditABC.com

Seating is limited. Sign up today to reserve your spot or arrive early take advantage of our first-come-first-served seating.

Please contact Tina@ExpressHomebuyers.com or 703-752-1374 to make a reservation or for any further information you may require.

Recently, a blog on our work at Illinois Avenue caught our eye, and we posted this response (You can read the original at Concrete Jungle). Our response is listed here:

“Thanks for your post. We are always happy to clarify our business.

Couple of things. First, it’s easy to take the hard numbers at the beginning and end of a transaction and question the spread and the profit – particularly if one wants to question the profit makers. It is true express Homebuyers purchased the Illinois Avenue property shown here for $150,000, a price we determined after investigating the overall condition of the property, and what it would take to renovate it to our standards—which are top-of-the-market.

In terms of this property, we judged the total cost to renovate it to our standards could be well over $125 to $150 thousand dollars. Just this alone would justify a price equal to similar properties in the neighborhood. Atop our costs of renovation we have to add marketing, listing, commission for agents and a host of other small costs that whittle away the remaining margin.

Finally, the $374,955 is the asking price. It would be ideal if it sells for that, but like all other properties, our listed price survives or dies at the very real hands of the market.

Secondly, we don’t necessarily favor the term “flipping” when it comes to our work. House flippers notoriously buy properties cheap, perform minimal—if any –repair, and try to sell the property as quickly as they can. Our mission remains to add value to all the properties we sell and, in the process, help the individuals who need to sell their properties get a quick solution.

Harold, Express Homebuyers”

It’s not a flea market.

If you’ve ever gone to a street sale or marketplace, you know that haggling is part of the process.  The selling price is whatever you can get it lowered to, and half the fun is low-balling until you and the vendor reach an agreement.  This is not how the home market works.  Drastically overpricing a house isn’t a good policy; potential buyers will be scared off, and will skip over your listing until they find something within their price range.  Your best bet is to determine its market value, and set the price close to this number.

Know your surroundings.

Another good move is to take into account what comparable homes in the neighborhood have sold (or are selling) for; if the other two story townhouse across the street has already been appraised and priced, it might not be a good idea to list yours on the market for twice as much.  Still, use common sense when determining a price.  If your home is in better condition or has features that many of the other homes in the area lack, don’t be afraid to set the bar higher.  Hiring a professional can be useful in this case because they can provide you with a CMA, or Comparative Market Analysis, which evaluates your home against others in the area.

As you are probably well aware, we are the largest homebuying service in the greater DC area.  We buy and sell hundreds of homes every year, and can save you the time, frustration and cost of shopping your house for months on an increasingly stingy market.  If you’d like to talk to us about your home or would like to know more about how we operate, take a look at our website and feel free to give us a call when you’re ready.

Downsizing

This can have several meanings.  If funds are tight and spending needs to be reduced, a less expensive house can make all the difference.  The number many use as their cutoff point is 60%, as in they know it’s time to unload their home when mortgage payments eat up over 60% of their monthly paycheck.  Sometimes the decision to downsize isn’t made out of necessity, but for the sake of convenience.  If your family becomes smaller (when a child leaves for college, for example) it may be time to look for a home with fewer bedrooms and less overall space.

More trouble than it’s worth

If you’ve ever owned an old car, you’ve probably had the following conversation at least once:
“You should really get those brakes fixed.”
“No way, that repair would probably cost more than the whole car is worth at this point.”
This probably won’t literally be the case for your home, but a house that constantly needs repairs can be an incredible waste of time and money.  If your “things to fix” list keeps growing and you’re racking up serious expenses, consider scaling down to a more affordable renovated home, one whose issues have already been identified and corrected.

If you can relate to any of these circumstances and decide that selling your home is the right move, check out our website at www.expresshomebuyers.com, we’re happy to discuss your situation and assist you by either buying or helping you sell your home.

Actually, there are several different kinds.  Here, we’ll mention two of the most common.  The fixed rate mortgage (or FRM) has the same interest rate for the entire term (usually 30 years) of the mortgage.  The nice thing about this option is its consistency; there are no surprises, and you have a set amount of monthly interest to plan around.  With an adjustable rate (or ARM) you generally start off paying less per month with a lower interest rate than you if you had an FRM, but both will go up and down (sometimes more than once a year) along with the rise and fall of the financial index they’re linked to.  Examples of common financial indices are the Cost of Funds Index (or COFI), and Constant Maturity Treasury securities (CMT).

Where do I go to set up my mortgage?

There are several places you can go to get a loan and finance your home, including banks, mortgage companies, and credit unions.  There are even state government lending services out there.  As you choose which of these options is right for you, it helps to shop around and compare the different rates and prices before settling on the one that can provide you with the mortgage that makes the most sense for your situation.  A real estate agent can be a good person to discuss your options with; if you’ve chosen to purchase your home through us, this is a process we would also be happy to assist you with.  It’s important to remember that getting set up doesn’t happen overnight: the loan approval process typically takes 3 to 6 weeks.

Once I’ve chosen a lender and am good to go, what exactly does my mortgage include?

There are usually four parts to every loan.  The principal is the actual amount you borrowed, the interest is what you pay the lender for lending you the money in the first place, part of your monthly costs go toward homeowner’s insurance (in case of theft, a fire, or other damaging circumstances) and of course, property taxes for the city/county you live in.

We understand buying a home and setting up a mortgage can be an intimidating process, but the key to making a good decision is to understand your options.  Please feel free to contact us if you’d like to know more about buying, selling or financing home, we’re happy to help.