While the government cannot fix the housing market on its own, the President believes that responsible homeowners should not have to sit and wait for the market to hit bottom to get relief when there are measures at hand that can make a meaningful difference, including allowing these homeowners to save thousands of dollars by refinancing at today’s low interest rates.

Key Aspects of This Plan:
- Provide Borrowers an opportunity to refinance and take advantage of historically low interest rates.
- Give Borrowers the chance to rebuild equity through refinancing.
- Setting a single set of standards to make sure borrowers and lenders play by the same rules.

Simple & Straightforward Eligibility Criteria for Borrowers:
- Current on their mortgage payments.
- They must meet a minimum credit score.
- Have a loan that is no larger than the current FHA conforming loan limits in their area.
- The loan they are refinancing is for a single family, owner-occupied principal residence.

How Can This Benefit YOU as a Borrower?
With rates below 4% on 30-year loans, and low 3% on 15-year, this is YOUR opportunity to save hundreds per month and thousands per yer! Contact me to explore your options!

For responsible borrowers, there will be no more barriers and no more excuses!

 

Whether you are at the office or planning next weekend’s birthday party, the fact is you can be considered a “Project Manager” in nearly every aspect of your life. So it is only fitting we provide a proven system to help you plan and complete more of your projects this year, so you can enjoy more money, less stress, and more life!First, let’s define a “project”? According to David Allen, the time management guru and author of Getting Things Done, a project is any task that will require more than one action item to complete.This definition alone will completely change how you think of any task going forward. Most people write on their to-do list “Buy New Lawnmower”, and consider this a task. The reality is there are many little steps that go in to this task.

 

What’s your budget? Gas or electric? How much horsepower?Once you shift how you think of a task, you will understand why so many to-do items never get completed. Now let’s teach you a proven process for planning and completing your projects!  Here are David Allen’s “Five Phases of Project Planning”: Defining Purpose Outcome Visioning Brainstorming Organizing Identifying Next Actions Let’s apply these five phases to a popular financial goal, such as paying off consumer debt. The purpose is fairly easy…free up monthly cash flow and reduce stress by paying off your consumer debt.		You’re invited to a special members-only event on February 21st, 2012! Join us for this FREE web event as we bring you International speaker, coach, and author Lou Radja for a live webinar exclusive for members of MFIC! *Space is limited. Register Early!

Your outcome visioning is what you believe having no consumer debt would look like, and how you and your family would feel with everything paid off, and what you might enjoy with all that extra cash flow.

Next, you need to brainstorm all the ways to get your consumer debt paid off. How much extra money can you apply to paying off your debt faster? Which debts do you start with? Should you pay a little extra on each debt, or apply all of your extra money to the largest debt, or the highest interest rate?

As you brainstorm, you will see just how many action items are associated with this project. Now you must organize your thoughts. What do you need to do first? You might begin by listing your debts, including the amount owed, interest rate, minimum payments, and any annual fees being charged. Then you may review your budget to find areas to free up money for this project.

Once everything is organized, the fun can start. You now will identify your next actions. Complete the inventory list of current debts. Decide which debts to pay first. Then decide how much extra to pay.

Start thinking of a project as any task requiring more than one action, and practice applying these five phases. Remember, our goal for you as a member of MFIC is to help you enjoy more money, less stress, and more life! Learning how to be more effective when planning and completing your projects, both at work and at home, can help you enjoy all three!

Click here to login to My Financial Independence Coach for more great education and resources.

With all the confusing news surrounding the financial markets and real estate, I thought it would be a great time to share a brief video from a trusted source I check in with on a daily basis.  Dan Rawitch is an industry expert with 20+ years of experience.  His expertise in bond trading helps me track interest rate movement to lock in rates at the right time.  Dan strips away all the jargon making the content very easy to understand.  I hope you find it useful and informative!

Since my mission at Strategy7 is to spell out the strategy for my clients’ financial well-being, many clients will want to go deeper into topics we briefly touch on during the initial consultation.  Cash flow management and debt elimination are typically the most popular topics.  I discovered that even though everyones financial lives are unique, the steps needed to improve or enhance their financial position were always the same.  In addition, it was hard to schedule the time to connect on the phone or meet in person on a regular basis to provide the accountability they needed and to pass on the next batch of information.  The solution is our online financial education source – MFIC, or My Financial Independence Coach.

Visit http://www.myfinancialindependencecoach.com/strategy7 to learn more and to enroll for free.

Rates are improving – are you wondering why?  Well, the unfortunate aspect of mortgage rate improvement is that it comes as the bi-product of a failing US economy.  Here is what we are seeing in the economy:

• Services index is slowest in18 months
• ADP jobs report is down
• Factory orders are down
• DOW has given up 1,000 points

What this all means is:  people aren’t buying products and services.  We are all holding on to our money and saving it to hedge against job loss and unexpected expenses.

With the economy struggling, investor dollars tend to flow into the safe haven of fixed income investments.  This flow of funds into Bonds is what is driving mortgage rates lower, nearing their all-time lows.  this trend can reverse very quiuckly, but mortgage rates should remain low for quite some time.  When true job growth starts in the US, that is when we will see economic recovery and mortgage rates start to rise.

Home Buyer Tax Credit Extended for Some BuyersWednesday, April 14, 2010

Many people are unaware that the First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit, as well as the current home owner credit, are extended for one year for Military personnel and the following:

• US Foreign Services
• US Intelligence
• 90+ Days of service in the armed forces

The extension will allow for purchase contracts to be accepted on or before April 30th, 2011.

 

You won’t believe the sweetheart deal that the Indymac boys were given by the FDIC – please watch this short video

Monday, February 8, 2010 http://TwitPWR.com/Dk2/ Quality of Life, at a DiscountThursday, February 4, 2010

Check out this excellent article from Forbes regarding the Portland Real Estate Market:

Quality of Life, at a Discount Portland, Ore., makes our list for much the same reason that San Francisco does: It’s a picturesque, culture-driven city with good local services and amenities. The city is still not particularly cheap for buyers–but it’s cheaper than normal.

A family hoping to put down roots there would normally pay a 62% premium to go from renting to buying. In the third quarter of 2009, however, that premium shrank by 16 percentage points. At the same time, Moody’s Economy.com anticipates that home prices will jump 19% over the next five years. That’s partly because, like San Francisco, Portland has strict government limitations on building and a coastal location that keep sprawl in check.

“Portland has one of the most controlled environments in the country in terms of development rights,” says Stuart Gabriel, director of the Ziman Center for Real Estate at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. “Those supply constraints will push prices up.”

 

Great new offer from Fannie Mae on their foreclosed propertiesMonday, February 1, 2010 FannieMae Announces 3.5 Percent Seller Assistance on HomePath® Properties
Incentive Part of Ongoing Effort to Stabilize Neighborhoods

WASHINGTON, DC — Fannie Mae (FNM/NYSE) announced today that people purchasing a Fannie Mae-owned HomePath® property will receive up to 3.5 percent of the final sales price to be used toward closing cost assistance or their choice of appliances. The offer is available to any owner-occupant who closes on the purchase of a property listed on HomePath.com before May 1, 2010.

“Attracting qualified buyers to the market and reducing the inventory of vacant homes is critical to stabilizing neighborhoods and helping the market recover. Many families are taking advantage of the federal homebuyer tax credit to buy a new home so this is a great time for Fannie Mae to offer some additional help,” said Terry Edwards, Executive Vice President of Credit Portfolio Management. “Homebuyers have the option to choose between financial assistance toward closing costs or new appliances for their home.”

Properties eligible for this incentive are listed on www.HomePath.com and most listings include detailed property descriptions, photographs, community and school information and more. In addition, many Fannie Mae-owned properties are eligible for special HomePath Mortgage and HomePath Renovation Mortgage financing which offers homebuyers an opportunity to purchase with as little as 3 percent down.

FHA Changes: How Will They Affect You?Thursday, January 28, 2010

You have heard of the big changes that will take hold this Spring in regards to FHA Financing – but I think it is important to take them in context and see how much (if any) these changes will affect you as a home buyer.

To quickly summarize the changes coming, here they are:

1. The Upfront mortgage insurance fee will increase by .500% to 2.25%.
2. The seller concessions have been decreased from 6% of the sales price to 3%.
3. For credit challenged borrowers (sub 580 credit scores), the minimum down payment required will be 10%.

Joe is a home buyer and has found a home priced at $250,000. He is planning on the 3.5% down payment option and having his closing costs credited by the seller. The closing costs are $5100 and the prepaid taxes, insurance and interest total $1750 for a total cost to close of $6850. Under the new FHA guidelines, we have 3%, or $7500, that the seller can credit on this price point, so we have the closing costs covered with room to spare.

The upfront mortgage insurance that is financed into the loan would currently total $4221.88 (1.750%). When added to our base loan amount of $241,250 we have a total loan amount of $245,471.88. At a rate of 5% the payment is 1317.75. When the upfront premium is changed to 2.25%, the funding fee for this borrower would equal $5428.13, taking the loan amount to $246,678.13 with a payment of $1324.22. The borrower’s payment is virtually the same, differing by only $6.47.

Lastly, Joe does not have great credit. We review his credit and notice that his mid score is 605. He has some late pays hurting his score but also has a credit card that is maxed out. He holds two other cards but they both have small balances. We advise Joe to transfer the balance across all 3 cards to get his balance on each card below 50% of the limit of each card (preferably below 33% of the limit). Joe makes the changes and we review his score the beginning of the following month – are mid score is now above 620, so we move forward with this loan approval.

FHA lenders (not FHA directly) have typically required borrowers to have a 620 mid score in order to lend to them. There are a few niche lenders that go as low as 530, but they require something else in return which is normally a larger investment from the borrower to offset the risk. The new change being made with FHA will not have much impact other than requiring these niche lenders to obtain 10% down payments on these risky borrowers before FHA will insure the loan.

I hope this example helps illustrate the new FHA changes and their true impact on you as a home buyer. Please call or email me anytime if you have questions.

Barney Frank Looking to Dismantle Fannie & FreddieMonday, January 25, 2010 Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass) is looking to do away with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government chartered institutions that securitize mortgages. Mr. Frank’s intention is to improve the oversight and regulation of this industry but unfortunately, he has no plan for how to replace these vital organizations if removed.

The purpose of Fannie & Freddie is to securitize mortgages so that they may be traded in the secondary market, freeing up bank/lender funds to loan more money to home buyers. This process keeps the market liquid and allows for the demand of borrowers to be met. Of course there might be a better way to conduct this process, but until one has been developed and purposed, let’s hope we stay the course and not run into new issues in the housing market while we are still inching our way toward a recovery. In addition, making this announcement will only damage the stock value of these companies; totaling 5.4 trillion in bond assets and 1.7 trillion in unsecured debt.
Recent Changes to FHA LoansFriday, January 22, 2010 As a First Time Home Buyer, using the FHA loan is a very important tool in acquiring a home with lower out-of-pocket cost and very favorable terms. The recent changes are attracting a lot of attention, however they will not have much impact on your buying power. Most importantly, these changes will help ensure that the FHA stays around and helps new buyers become homeowners during this amazing real estate market.

The basic changes are:

• The Upfront Mortgage Insurance premium has been increased .500% to 2.25%. This is typically financed into your loan. It does increase the loan amount, but in all honesty at the low prices and low rates of interest, this change will very little impact on your loan.
• For borrowers with credit scores below 580, 10% will be the minimum down payment amount. This change makes perfect sense, and any of my clients that are in that credit score range work with me to improve their credit before buying a home to take advantage of better rates and lower downpayment requirements.
• Decrease the allowable seller concessions from 6% to 3%. In some instances, this change might negatively impact a purchase in which considerable credits are being negotiated to the buyer. However, in the case of covering your closing costs, 3% will typically cover that amount – and any repairs the seller would like to credit you money for versus fix can now be requested to be completed by them before you take ownership of the home.

These changes will start in mid Spring and Summer, so if you are considering buying a home, now is a great time to get prepared.