Michigan Mortgage

Flashback from Markets past.

In 2003 rates hit all-time lows for that era. 30-year fixed rates touched down at around 5.5% at their lowest and 15-year fixes leveled out at almost at 5% even.

Today, rates are better than that by one full percentage point.

The reason I’m reminded of this is because I’m finally seeing a lot of my customers again…

Self Serving or True?

This post covers something I often think but rarely say because it sounds as though I am being very self serving. But because blog readers are volunteers, I think this is the right medium in which to present it.

COST AND RATE SHOPPING…

The Free Market Erases Real Estate Losses Almost Effortlessly

I’ve had no fewer than 10 conversations this week where the title of this post was at least partially true for the client. I’ll demonstrate what I mean here by running the numbers for a client I met this summer through my connection with The Dave Ramsey Radio Program…

Seven ways to look this bad real-estate and economic market straight in the face and do something very positive.

1. Buy a low-cost home and rent it out. Redefine your abilities by reading one or two books like The Millionaire Real Estate Investor by Gary Keller and doing a little bit of research on the michigan.gov site about how to evict an in-default tenant. Being a land lord is not as hard as it sounds.

2. Rent your house to one of the thousands of families who are unable to buy a home, and buy another at rock-bottom prices…

What does “every possible effort” mean?

My previous post was a real downer, and at the end I promised a more positive one for my next post. Here it is. I hope this story encourages you as much as it has encouraged me.

The best way for me to define “every possible effort” is with a story. I have dozens like it that I could have chosen from. I like this one a lot, and it’s all true…

But it’s not my fault!

Yesterday I had a scheduled call with a new prospective client. It was a script I hear often:

Client: “Here I am, minding my own business and making all of my payments on time and then through no fault of my own and because of all of these greedy banks, lying politicians, and people trying to get something for nothing, my house is worth half of what I paid for it. After two years of that, I decided it’s time to get what’s mine.”

My response…

Short sales do not have to kill your credit.

If you’re considering doing a short sale on your home or former home, then I may have good news for you depending on how you’ve handled your situation until now.

By now you have likely been given the news that a short sale is similar to a foreclosure in how it affects your credit standing. This means the earliest you would be able to be financed for a home purchase is three years from the date of the close of sale of your home if you sold “short.” On your credit report, the mortgage company would have notated the account with one of two phrases: “paid legally” or “settled for less than full balance.”

When I see a note like that, I can generally assume that the client is three years (from the date of sale) away from getting another mortgage approval.

But not always…

Your Home May be the Perfect Rental – Timing is Everything.

I’ve talked with a number of my clients about the following four realities. Many have taken action based on these.

Real Estate is on sale like never before.
You know this already. Most people won’t take advantage of these prices because they can’t see what’s happening around them through the haze of the negative news media and the scare of some impending global gloom and doom. Be that as it may, the fact remains that you could buy your next home, a move up in your own market, for a more favorable price than at any other time in the last 10 to 15 years in most of the country…