Posts by : Alan Donald

WSJ Study Finds Best Listing Day

REALTORS have often debated if the day of the week that you list a home has any effect on the outcome. The Wall Street Journal published recently the results of a national study that concluded that YES! The day of the week DOES affect the outcome, albeit in a small way.

SMELLY AFFAIRS

The sense of smell is a powerful motivator. When prospective buyers walk into a house, their senses are alert to take in any visual, audio or smell stimuli to form that “first impression”.

It is well known that buyers respond more positively if they smell freshly baking oatmeal or chocolate chip cookies instead of the lingering odors of mold, cigarette smoke or a household pet. 

Because you are used to it, you may not notice odors that visitors are aware of as soon as they walk in the door. When your house is for sale, ask a friend or neighbor to give it a "sniff test". If they notice any odors, you bet potential buyers are going to notice them too! The presence of...

About Reverse Mortgages - Now You Can Use Them to Purchase a Second Home

Similarly to a "normal" (or forward) mortgage, your home is used as the collateral for the lender, except that in an RM the lender pays you, instead of you paying the lender!

There are three types of reverse mortgages:

• FHA-insured - called  Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM). 
• Lender-insured and
• Uninsured

Borrowers can elect to receive a combination of monthly payments, lump sum or a line of...

We picked up these myths from Experian (the credit reporting bureau) and thought they would be interesting to share:

Myth #1: Checking my own credit report will lower my score
Personal inquiries, also known as "soft inquiries" or "below the line inquiries," are not visible to lenders and therefore are not part of your credit score calculation. So you can rest easy—checking your own credit report or score does NOT negatively impact your score.

Myth #2: Applying for new credit will actually lower my score
This depends on the type of credit you're applying for. If you apply for several credit cards within a short period of time, the number of inquiries will go up, which could drop your score...

In a previous "Seller's Market", if a contract with the first Buyers fell through, nobody on the Seller side cared or worried: They would just release the contract and most probably negotiate a better price with the next "backup" contract that was lined up to take its place, given that the property was aged on the market a few more weeks and prices were going up fast...

In a "Buyer's Market" one of the most critical services a REALTOR® can provide, is his/her ability to "keep the deal together" until closing. Many Sellers believe that once the contract is signed, it is a binding commitment on the Buyers, but this is not always the case.

With many options to choose from, Buyers may keep ...

Yesterday HUD released changes to their FHA mortgage lending practices:

1. They consolidated their pricing for the two reverse mortgage programs Standard Fixed-Rate Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) and Saver Fixed Rate HECM
2. They increased their Mortgage Insurance Premiums by 0.1% for normal loans and by 0.05% for jumbo loans ($625K+), and extended the payment over the whole life of the loan (i.e. borrowers no longer can automatically drop paying MIP when their equity reaches 22%)
3. FHA will now requiring Manual Underwriting on Loans with Decision Credit Scores below 620 & DTI Ratios over 43 Percent
4. FHA raised the minimum down payment on Loans above $625,500 from 3.5% to 5%
5. They wi...