Isi Wu's Blog

HELLLLOOOO My Wonderful, Beeeeeautiful Bay Area!!..We’re in a very aggressive multiple offer market…  you need to take action asap… I’m happy to help and at your service… 925.997.2426 or isiwu@comcast.net…

(please read below…from a satisfied repeat client)….

Now is a great time to make your dream come true of owning a home.  Interest rates are great and real estate prices are good. That’ s all you have to think about, Isi will take care of the rest.

You need a real estate agent who’s fresh and a “go getter” when it’s time to make a deal. Someone who has been around the block.  Someone who can represent you when the pressure is on. Timing is crucial when it comes to closing, because there’s so many “unknowns” that can spoil the deal.  Isi, has the knowledge of the whole process.  She has represented me in two house purchases and one sale.. she knows both sides of the negotiation… This is how she can put together as she would say, “a great package” when its time to submit an offer or receiving an offer.  Isi also has an extensive network of professionals to keep the process moving along…This recent purchase Isi made sure we got our inspections done in a timely manner and turned us on to a loan agent with much better rates than what we were already approved for by another company.

I’m convinced I would still be renting if Isi was not my agent… if you’re in the market for a home or considering one… CALL ISI… your dreams can become a reality like it happenend for my wife and me… Thank You Isi!!… by S Hipol

(and NO… I didnt pay him LOL… He’s a very happy client… I would love to go to work for you !!…Thanks for your consideration!!)

HELLLOOOO My Beautiful Wonderful Bay Area!…. My Nugget for the Day…It’s important homeowners facing foreclosure… know they should never pay fees in advance to anyone promising to lower their monthly payment or any other service. In fact, “there are usually no costs associated with modifying a loan.”

HELLLOOOO My Beautiful Wonderful Bay Area…. As you all may have heard or perhaps been a part of... our current bay area real estate market for sellers is in the throes of Multiple Offers...Hooray for the Sellers!… however this sort of situation can put buyers into the fray of uncertainty and aggressive competition for a chance to buy a home…  the current low inventory of homes surely adds pressure for the buyer… many have to compromise on what their true desires for a home may be… Today my focus is to provide some information and help for those buyers…  whose goal is to become homeowners!!  There’s plenty of other types of buyers who have at least 30-40-50% down and in many cases All Cash… Buyers who are barely able to put down 1-3% don’t have the luxury of extra money set aside to repair or remodel the only property they can afford.  Lets say for example…

You are attracted to a house that is perfectly located but it just came out of foreclosure and needs a lot of work to make it habitable. To swing the deal, you need to finance both the purchase and the required repairs. How do you do that?

Getting the mortgage required to purchase a house is only one of the challenges facing the buyer when the house needs work. The second challenge is finding a way to finance the needed repairs. The standard purchase mortgage doesn’t do that because it is based on the lower of sale price or the appraised value of the home in its current condition.

An obvious solution is a second mortgage, but they are not available in the current market except where the first mortgage is too small to do the buyer any good. Second mortgage lenders are still smarting from the steep losses they suffered on second mortgages written during the go-go years leading up to the financial crisis. An unsecured personal loan would be extremely costly if it were available at all.

The solution to this problem is a mortgage on which the loan amount is based on the value of the property after needed repairs have been made. Then one mortgage would cover both a purchase and the repairs needed to make the house habitable. This is future value financing, and it is available through a special FHA program termed “203(k).” This program is available to both home purchasers and existing homeowners who want to rehabilitate their properties in conjunction with a refinance.

The Section 203(k) program is complicated because FHA as the risk bearer has to make sure that the future value of the property upon which the mortgage amount is based actually materializes. To protect itself, FHA requires an appraisal of the property’s value after completion of the planned rehabilitation, in addition to an appraisal of the property “as is.”

Further, before the mortgage is insured, the lender must create a rehabilitation escrow account that contains the money allocated for expenses. FHA has procedures in place to assure that draws against this account are properly disbursed and accounted for, and that the rehabilitation work is completed.

Lenders are encouraged to participate in 203(k)s by the insurance against loss provided by FHA. However, 203(k)s are more complicated and involve more paperwork than the mainstream FHA program, and participating lenders use specially trained staff. As a result, many lenders don’t offer 203(k)s. Lenders that do offer them charge a rate above that on standard FHAs — figure on paying about 0.25 percent more. 

The borrower looking for future value financing must deal with multiple players. In a typical case, the real estate agent who shows a potential buyer a house in need of work will recommend a lender who will preapprove the borrower for a 203(k). The preapproval is based on estimates of sale price and repair costs. The sale price estimate is provided by an appraiser selected by the lender who values the property on both an as-is and after-repairs basis. The repair cost is provided by a licensed general contractor who is usually recommended by the lender. 

In addition, if the repair costs are more than $35,000, FHA requires the borrower to retain a HUD-approved consultant to help manage the process… Among other things, the consultant prepares the required architectural exhibits, and monitors the improvements at each stage. HUD provides a list of consultants and sets their fee schedule, but does not warrant their performance. Lenders will usually recommend consultants that they have worked with, and this is one case where a lender referral is likely to serve the borrower well. The consultant’s fee can be included in the mortgage.

Increased use of 203(k) in the next few years is expected. Millions of homes emerging from the foreclosure process will enter the market, and many of them have been neglected and need work.

(written by…Jack Guttentag is professor of finance emeritus at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania)

Perhaps its time to get you lined up for this sort of financing… contact me for further information… Call or Email Me Anytime… Isi

HELLLLOOOOO MY WONDERFUL BEAUTIFUL BAY AREA!!… Have I told you lately how much I appreciate living and working in this awesome area we call the San Francisco Bay Area?… Having resided in other parts of  this US of A… sorry cant help it… we are blessed we are truly blessed to call this area HOME!!….

At a recent training I learned more real estate related factoids...(we can never get enough factoids… correct??… )  in the state of California there are…

• 6.8 million Mortgages
• 2.04 million Homes Underwater
• 435,000 Delinquent Mortgages
• 183,600 in Foreclosure
• 75,000 Bank Owned
• 18,000 Distressed

Do you fit into any of these categories?… let me hear your story… let me try and help you… WE ARE ABSOLUTELY THE LAND OF 2ND CHANCES… with rules changing every day there are No Rigid Rules!! Nothing is written in stone… I’m happy to hear your story… lets work together to get things straightened out…

HELLLLOOOO My Wonderful Beautiful Bay Area… Those of you who have enjoyed taking certain deductions yearly… be forewarned… certain tax benefits will be going up up and away… (the article below comes from Inman News)… please make your notes and be sure to take what you can before they disappear…

Real Estate Tax Talk. There are several tax credits and deductions set to expire at the end of the year, and given the federal deficit problem, there’s a good chance they won’t be extended. If you want to take advantage of them, you need to act before Jan. 1, 2012. Mortgage insurance premium deduction If you itemize deductions, you may deduct the premiums you pay for mortgage insurance, just like you do mortgage interest. However, this deduction is phased out if your income exceeds certain levels. To qualify for the full deduction, a couple or a single taxpayer must have an adjusted gross income of $100,000 or less. The deduction is phased out completely if AGI exceeds $109,000. For further details go ahead and check out the full article…click open the hyperlink below…

http://shar.es/oh6zE

HELLLLOOOO My Beautiful Wonderful Bay Area… Finally looks like our weather is warming up… and as the weather heats up… there’s news heating up regarding our real estate market…Bankers and community advocates protest tough down payment requirements… read the rest of the  MSNBC article in the following link…

http://on.msnbc.com/mxmhS4

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HELLOOOOOO…. MY Wonderful, Beautiful, Wet and Cold Bay Area!!… Today we have a Q and A for you… check it out… (Send me your questions anytime…)

QUESTION… In today’s environment (February 2011) can one purchase a home with 10% down, credit score of 740, $200,000 income and a short sale in 2009?

Asked by Donsfan – Home Buyer in Oakland – Home Buying

ANSWER… Hello… As you must know the current market is not exactly a wonderful one to be in… one would think its very much to the advantage of the buyers to be able to buy lower than ever before… because of all the challenges in the lending process these days and because of all of its ever changing requirements it can be a huge headache to maneuver through… I suggest that you connect up with a realtor who has some years of experience to counsel and guide you through what can and cannot be done… Good Luck to you… Isi

Related articles

• How first-time buyers can get on the property ladder (telegraph.co.uk)
• Short Sales, Foreclosure and Your Credit Score (creditscore.net)

HELLLLLOOOO My Wonderful Beautiful San Francisco Bay Area!!… What a beautiful day we’re having today… We’re so fortunate to live where we do… Life here is the best!!…  Today for your amusement and consideration as a possible very viable alternative to the high cost of homes as we know it… There’s big interest brewing for this option… what do you think??….

Helllooooo My Wonderful Beautiful Bay Area!!…

Today… we have an extension of  my posting on Tuesday October 12… Foreclosures Halting… Now What??!!!…

The breadth and ultimate effects of  this latest Foreclosure Issue may not be realized anytime soon, while we wait for more solid information to come down the pipeline etc… I thought you’d like to hear  from a trusted very experienced loan consultant and good  friend of mine, who was kind enough to share his personal perspective on the Foreclosure Situation…

(The content below is not be construed to be anything more than his own personal opinion)…

Hi Isi,

My personal belief is that lenders have been very patient with homeowners and to add this extra burden to already stretched banks and lending entities is simply suicidal for our economy.  Homeowners that are behind know very well they will lose their home.  Just like you and I know that on a clear day, the sky is blue.  Banks need to be able to move on their assets and eventually be solvent again.  Banks are not our adversaries.  Heavy and costly government along with the heavy and costly regulation that comes with it, is the problem. 

My business is so laden with regulation now that the average applicant is paying a higher rate and more fees to obtain the same product and the new regulations have done very little to enlighten the consumer to what they are getting.  Sadly, the only benefit the consumer has received is the privilege of paying more for the same product.

 On a different subject.  The economy starts with the consumer ( you and I and our neighbor) – not with business as these administrations keep pushing.  If the consumer has money at the end of the month and is not worried about the future and heavy inevitable taxes, then the consumer will spend which then leads to demand for services and products.  Hence employment.   The only way the consumer is going to have money to spend and feel good about the future is heavy federal and state tax cuts along with heavy government spending cuts.  If I had an extra $10,000.00 at the end of the year and I see a government heavily cutting back and behaving fiscally responsible, I might just purchase that couch we need or maybe I will get a new car.  Multiply this spending by millions and hence demand will jump, businesses will see this demand and expand hiring people and the future would be bright.

This government is poised to spend and unless you are willing to cut government way back it is useless talking about tax cuts.  So vote them out and replace them with leaders who tremble at the thought of big government and spending.  In order to prosper, government must be squeezed, regulation must be loosed, and tax burdens must be lifted.  There is no other formula for a great and prosperous America. 

 Hope this helps. 

Tom Erbil
Mortgage Broker – DRE License# 00934494

Stay tuned in and check back for more updates as they become available…

Isi

Isi Wu… the realtor for you!

Serving Clients All Over the Eastbay and Beyond…

Related articles

• Dory Rand: Robo-Signers Expose Weaknesses in Servicers’ Foreclosure Processes (huffingtonpost.com)
• Colossal Foreclosure Fraud (lewrockwell.com)
• So you bought a foreclosed home. Now what? (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Obama administration rejects nationwide foreclosure moratorium (usatoday.com)
• U.S. bank shares take hit over foreclosure woes (financialpost.com)

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HELLLLLOOOO My Wonderful – Beautiful Bay Area… The news is out… A number of major banks have volunteered to temporarily suspend foreclosures in 23 states and Bank of America is temporarily suspending foreclosures nationwide…

This situation is changing daily… this is just part of what we know so far… so far only Bank of America has extended its foreclosure moratorium to California, where the vast majority of foreclosures are conducted without a court order… the other 22 states are processed through the court system.  However non-judicial foreclosures in California do have legal requirements that lenders must follow… Other lenders and servicers placing foreclosure moratoriums are… Goldman Sachs Group Inc’s Litton Loan Servicing, Ally Financial Inc‘s GMAC Mortgage unit, JPMorgan Chase and PNC Financial… please keep in mind they are only Temporarily halting the foreclosure process until they have reviewed whether some lenders/servicers were following correct procedures prior to foreclosing on properties.  This is all taking place voluntarily there has not been any mandates by either State or Federal entities. The bigger question is… just how long will it really take to straighten this mess up??!!!

The immediate impact of this moratorium on your transactions may cause delays and may even remove the listed foreclosures.

Lets all hope these latest events will be resolved swiftly to minimize the impact on our housing market in the Bay Area!

Stay tuned in and check back for updates as they become available…

Isi

Isi Wu… the realtor for you

Serving Clients All Over the Eastbay!